Lurita Doan: In Her Own Words

The biggest story of the week for feds has been the resignation of GSA Administrator Lurita Doan. Speculation has run rampant about why she quit and how it all happened.

For the first time, Doan is speaking out about exactly what happened and how.

She tells Federal Drive anchors Tom Temin and producer Francis Rose that although she's used to being in the spotlight, she's now looking at herself from an outside perspective.

Doan: It's kind of awkward? Because, for example, with the New York Times, you know they certainly put forward a rather... I guess you could call it a seductive theory, but frankly, everyone keeps missing the point, and so that's really frustrating. This controversy has always been about the IG at GSA and about my attempts to bring oversight to the IG's actions. You know I've always supported oversight, but I have always believed there is a downside to excessive oversight, and I've been on the IG from the start - I simply lost the battle. And the New York Times is enormously frustrating because I've never spoken with a New York Times reporter since becoming Administrator. Their bias against President Bush was established long before I came on the scene, and the way I look at it, they're certainly not going to interrupt their bias with any sort of facts. So I think Thomas Jefferson said it right. He said sometimes the most accurate thing in the newspapers are the advertisements. ("Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.") At least for me, that's certainly true of the New York Times.

Rose: Tell us about the logistics of how this all happened. It's been pretty much universally reported that you were asked to resign by the White House. If you could tell us if that is indeed what happened, and then if you could tell us how it happened.

Doan: Well Francis, you know, it's a real thrill to go to the White House. You get to walk up that curved drive to the West Wing, and.... and I have a deep, and a really lasting respect for President Bush who... who I believe is a truly great man, but... but during my 22 months as Administrator of GSA, I had never met with any senior White House person - not once. So here I am, I'm sitting down for the first time with (White House Chief of Staff) Josh Bolton and (White House Counsel) Fred Fielding and less than thirty seconds into the meeting I was told that the White House is requesting my resignation. It was humbling, and frankly, it was bizarre. So naturally, I immediately stated "I serve at the pleasure of the President" and I immediately gave my resignation, but... but it was absolutely surreal.

Temin: Was there any discussion of why this was happening?

Doan: Of course I naturally asked why do they want my resignation. You probably can imagine my surprise, especially since I've recently been on FederalNewsRadio talking about GSA's recent innovations and our entrepreneurial energies and all of our successes over the last 22 months and I know we have had a lot of GSA people on FederalNewsRadio talking about those various successes in a lot of different areas and so I really did wanna know why and I asked them and... and I was surprised to be told that from the White House point of view I was considered - and this is a direct quote - a "distraction". (Pauses to catch her breath.) A distraction to progress at GSA. You know, I know I have had a high profile, and I know I've taken very public... you know, very vocal stands on a lot of very contentious issues. I've been a tiger on procurement. Of course I love talking about telework. My passion is talking about expanding, and working on expanding, our ports of entry, and making opportunities for small businesses, but I saw that as my job.

Twenty two months ago when I arrived at GSA, it seemed like it had lost its way. It had gotten complacent. It seemed like our employees didn't believe in themselves. I think all that's changed, so I have no regrets about being the champion of good ideas and speaking out on problem areas... But I was surprised to hear that all of this was viewed as a distraction.

So my best guess is that I was asked to resign because, specifically, I refused to back down on my support for the four whistleblowers at GSA that came forward. They came forward with allegations of retaliation, intimidation, falsification of records, and destruction of evidence by the GSA IG Brian Miller, and no one has spoken to them. It has been almost eight months. And I thought, I still think, that those whistleblowers deserve to be heard. Especially since many of those allegations are the very same sort of complaints that I had heard from our top GSA schedule holders, from GSA management, and more importantly from the rank and file of the GSA career contracting officers.

I guess the straw that broke the camel's back was when, just two days before, I sent yet another letter to Senator (Charles) Grassley (R-IA, and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Finance) and the PCIE, which is the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, requesting that they make sure that the whistleblowers get heard. Because even though it's been in the media, and even though the GSA IG Brian Miller has implied that he was cleared of the allegations, that is just not true. There were actually four other charges that have never been investigated. And, as I said before, no one has interviewed the four whistleblowers. And worse, what has happened is that it seems that Brian Miller has now retaliated against those whistleblowers by opening his own investigation into each of them with all sorts of extraordinary claims and.... anyway... I think that the GSA IG's behavior is unethical, unfair, and possibly corrupt. And I was not going to tolerate anyone that contributed to a hostile work environment for our GSA employees.

Hill Relations

Doan on dealing with Congress and individual members:

• Sen. Grassley and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Ca.) - "When you really get down to it, they're really not interested in procurement."

• Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) - (On a building a courthouse in Buffalo.) "I think Senator Schumer understood that I was trying to get more out of taxpayer dollars, and he would have supported my move even if it hadn't included Buffalo."

• Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) - (Referring to a surprise walk-through in El Paso.) "We were kind of like these two kids on a playground talking about 'well, we could do this' or 'we could move the road there' or 'we could change that sidewalk'... Things that we could do to make the traffic move faster."

• Rep. Bob Filner (D-Ca.) - "I know a lot of people say he's this feisty member, but that actually hasn't been my experience. What I think is all you have to do with Congressman Filner is talk about doing more for veterans and doing more for service disabled military members, and when you do that, the guy just opens up. He rolls up his sleeves and I could not have had a better ally."

• Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) - "Probably the most knowledgeable member of Congress regarding procurement. I think he has no equal." "Wouldn't it be great if one day we could elect him President."

• Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) - "Has to be one of the most effective - and decent - people I've ever had the pleasure to work with. She's a real class act."

Doan: So all I could encourage the next administrator, and GSA to continue doing is go up to the Congressmen, go up to the Senators, ask them to come to our various projects, our meetings, our conferences - engage them and ask for their help on our important, critical, issues. I have found that whenever I've done that, almost to a man or woman, they have always responded positively."

What's Ahead

"Last month, I had the privilege of meeting President Calderon of Mexico and we talked for about an hour on ports of entry issues. He's really engaged and knowledgeable but I was embarrassed that I didn't speak spanish, so I am going to start learning to speak spanish.

I will say that I hope that the next thing that'll happen is that I'll be in my garden one day, maybe listening to FederalNewsRadio, and you guys'll talk about excessive regulation, changing standards of audits or oversight and how better balance needs to be found with oversight and how we can get better value for the taxpayer and I'm going to put down my shovel and I hope I get to do a little victory dance and I'll get to know that my efforts as GSA Administrator, actually made that day possible."

In The End

(With music fading up under Doan speaking)

"Could I say...Francis, I have to say one thing: the real thing I regret is that with the hurried speed with which I had to resign... I never had the opportunity to speak to my employees, I never had a chance to explain what had occurred, and I never had the chance to thank them for their hard work. So if my GSA employees are listening to this, I want them to know it has been a rare privilege to work with you and to work at GSA. I will cherish my memories."

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On the Web:

President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency - http://www.ignet.gov/pcieecie1.html

New York Times - The Lurita Doan Story (Editorial)

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