Border line failures

How interesting. Two courageous whistleblowers came forward with evidence of widespread corruption at the Douglas, Arizona Border Patrol Station from January 2000 through April 2002, that implicated several members of management. Unsurprisingly, an internal probe exonerated the wrongdoers without ever having interviewed anyone pertinent to the investigation.

After review by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, the investigation was then kicked up to Homeland Security who also exonerated the wrongdoers, taking the managers word for their innocence. The whistleblowers were never interviewed by anyone, nor was their evidence reviewed.

Surprisingly, the OSC released a report condemning the investigations as inadequate.

The Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch stated: "Given the failure of Border Patrol investigators to follow up on evidentiary leads possibly indicating management knowledge or involvement in the illegal kickback conspiracy and their apparent refusal to interview the whistleblowers, both agency reports must be viewed as deficient. By failing to conduct a thorough review from the beginning and relying on faulty advice from the personnel office in deciding not to discipline law enforcement personnel engaging in criminal activity, there is a real risk of creating the appearance of a whitewash. Integrity and transparency in government command a higher standard, and more needs to be done to thoroughly investigate this matter."

Wonder how the White House missed suppressing that one?

[hat tip to Vig]