I am one of those IG guys and I can tell you we pursue fraud or waste with the enthusiasm of a pit bull on a side of bacon!!!! If you are little distrusting (and who isn't) make your complaint anonymous to the hotline. And if you want us to succeed, we need detail. We need names, locations, dollars and real facts. And remember, there are only a relative few of us, so the bigger the dollars or the more likely the conviction, the greater the chance of getting our attention, so don't expect us to jump on your boss' extra 15 minutes at lunch. We aren't here to be your revenge either, don't waste our time. Be honest, be accurate, and guys like me will do everything possible to get the bad guys, so the 99.99% good feds can hold their head up high.

Like your enthusiasm but you are so short handed, aren't you? The internal DOD/Army IG's are a fail - OK - I'll try one last time and call the Hotline. Nothing ventured - nothing gained. This case is not revenge or an extra 15 minutes at lunch - I understand - this is out right fraud and there have been life numbing, personally destructive consequences, which was their goal. My spouse deserves better. Thanks.

Seems like any whistleblower I've ever known has said it wasn't worth it.

Good point. She did it. She has no regrets. But she wouldn't do it again. It is better to leave the federal service altogether than to compromise your integrity - I agree with her. By the way to the IG poster - she is completing a DOD IG Hotline Complaint Form tonight and she will not be anonymous. She is faxing it in. Thanks.

Thank you for the referral. I represent my spouse and I asked her to complete the Defense Hotline Complaint Form. I don't want her to be anonymous on the form so she identified herself. Her complaint is reprisal and fraud. She named an Army Major and an Army Colonel (COL) as the subjects who committed the wrong doing. I told her to go FAX it in to the Defense Hotline tonight. Thank you for the tip. We hope the IG takes her seriously. She took her Army responsibilities seriously.

It's really hard to provide detail and be anonymous. When you stick your neck out, you figure you'd better be there to answer IG questions too. If only it could at least remain confidential. And how to demonstrate that 'mismanagement' really is costing millions of dollars?

Well in the international income tax thing I referance in this thread... I did just that. I went to the DOD law enforcement folks here in Kuwait, they also identified they had FBI on staff in this meeting, just not who was what agency. They told me they could do NOTHING because what I reported was in Europe not Kuwait. They did apparently forward this to Europe. Who I know for a fact did nothing. The reason I know, I would not disclose names of witnesses to them and told them those names would only be released in the course of a formal law enforcement investigation. That never happened. Next time I will just go to Interpol or the host nation to report this kind of garbage, screw the outcome and flak that will be directed against me.

Even reporting to internal affairs, although it's supposed to be confidential, gets you labeled as a trouble maker. Even wrong-doing SESers find out who "squealed." And our Agency was already recently all over the news (again) for whistle-blowers getting harassed and out-ed for speaking up. Until there is a confidential way to hand over the evidence and not get hung out to dry, some of us are left with documenting why we won't do something illegal, and suffering for it (at least it's not suffering in jail!). This needs to change somehow...

On paper and in the public eye, this whole Whistleblower Act looks fantastic on paper. The reality is, its just that..it works only on paper. I dont care where you work, if the puppetmasters are doing wrong, and you speak up and whistleblow, they will cut those strings on you. Look at what those FAA inspectors went through a few years ago. They had to fight like heck to have their names cleared and jobs back (not sure if they took it)plus were on CSPAN on an aired Congressional Hearing. I am not sure what happened to those that spoke up on that but I cant imagine they went went back to work and a party was given in their names for being Whistleblowers. I think once you decide to speak up, you better know that retaliation will occur-guaranteed, that you risk losing your job-guaranteed, and then if its juicy enough, you may end up on CSPAN for a Congressional Hearing-again, guaranteed to never be hired anywhere within 300 miles of where you started. What happens to all of those Whistleblowers down the road? Did they prosper at their workplace? Did the fight they took on financially break them with attornies? In order for anyone to have faith in this act, fed employees need to see some of the fallout of what happened to others that whistleblowed a few years down the road. Would I ever whistleblow? Heck no. Know why? I need my job. I might do it AFTER I leave an agency, but certainly not while they pay me-it would be career suicide and financially bankrupting. I dont have faith that there is truly protection. Unless they make it anonymous-there is no way in heck I would stick my neck out unless I personally was ordered to do something completely illegal when my hand is forced. THank god I have a union because I think thats the only protection I really have (including access to attornies if needed).

Delighted to see someone else shining another light on what happens when higher ups at the federal level get caught mismanaging the federal interest and abusing authority. The GSA story is but one in a sea of deceit that creates a culture of fraud and abuse throughout the federal government. As a former federal employee of the Department of Health and Human Services, stationed in Region 9, I witnessed first hand how easy it was for recipients of grants to commit fraud. That fraud included cheating states out of licensing fees which in turn state revenues and caused direct harm children. Vulnerable children were exposed to unsafe living conditions and abuse, including being exposed to sexual predators. The more I probed into how this was happening, I found that HHS/ACF had not performed audits, federal mandated oversight and were not closing out grants. The result was staggering; almost a half a billion dollars. http://oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region2/20702000.pdf What happened when I reported the fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement and specific dangers to public health and safety is legendary. I found myself under the glare of corrupt officials including political appointees who received bonuses on performance. In fact, many were personally benefiting from the abuse and helping their friends receive grant funds through ties to the White House. Shepard Smith (Fox News) was one who received an unsolicited grant that was written by federal employee; Stanley Koutstaal, Head of the Abstinence Program. My previously exemplary work was taken away from me. I was spied upon and my work email was shut down. I had to use my personal email for work although I was a full-time federal employee. I was blocked from the record department, not allowed to attend meetings and effectively demoted. Then I was not allowed to enter my office building or any HHS offices in D.C. I was harassed and physically confronted by angry co-workers who hadn't done a days work in years. The subject of what happened hit the press in 2008 in California. The scandal was huge that runaway and homeless children were being abused nationwide. Yet at the time, I could get no help from any of the so called advocates that protect federal whistleblowers. The HHS IG, Office of Special Counsel, Merit System Protection Board did nothing to protect me. It's absurd for anyone to say that federal employees can report to the IG and not fear retaliation. The IG at HHS is not helping whistleblowers, whatsoever. In fact I remember the day the special agent Jennifer Spaulding called me to say that I should begin to think about what I wanted to do in my career next. She told me although clearly I was a whistleblower who had done my job well, there were too many people at the top involved in the wrongdoing. It was simply easier to get rid of me than to show they had not been doing their jobs. Curtis Coy was the man at the top of the financial chain of HHS/ACF. It was his fault that Regions such as 9 were abusing their power. He now works for the VA. After I left government service, I started my own organization to help whistleblowers at whistlewatch.org We are currently working a on project to show the enormous tax payer waste of retaliation against federal whistleblowers. It is a violation of federal law to retaliate yet, the MSPB stands idly by allowing federal agencies to seriously harm the federal work force. In these tough economic times, we can no longer allow federal agencies to have a open check book nor allow those who receive federal funds to ignore the law. The cost to harm federal whistleblowers rises to the billions each year. EBrown, CEO, Whistlewatch.org