Louisiana: The DOA is in the New$ again
Subject: The DOA is in the New$ again..................................
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 15:54:33 -0500
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of
California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/newsstory/audit28.html
Critical report on Odom challenged
Ag chief, lawmaker question objectivity
02/28/02
By Laura Maggi
Capital bureau/The Times-Picayune
BATON ROUGE -- Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom lit into Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle on Wednesday, while several members of a panel that watches over the auditor's work fanned the flames.
Rep. Taylor Townsend, D-Natchitoches, a frequent critic of Kyle, said the Legislative Audit Advisory Council should hire an outside consultant to look over some of the auditor's reports, singling out a recently released audit of the state Department of Agriculture.
"I have some concerns about governmental auditing standards, objectivity and the independence of the auditor," Townsend said. But after questioning from the council's chairman, Sen. Tom Schedler, R-Slidell, Townsend agreed to defer discussion on that proposal until the next meeting.
Kyle told the council that a peer review team of auditors from a national organization goes over his work every three years.
Odom and Kyle publicly sparred over the investigative audit while the investigators were working on the report, including two trips to court over whether certain documents should be given to the auditor.
The report says Odom used his department planes for personal and campaign-related flights, had department employees run personal errands during working hours, gave plum political jobs to employees doing typical civil servant work, manipulated a government contract and used campaign money for personal purposes.
A parallel state grand jury investigation over the past year has been looking into some of the same issues raised by Kyle. Sandra Ribes, the assistant district attorney in East Baton Rouge Parish who is handling the case, was in the committee audience Wednesday.
Odom and his attorney laid out their case that the Kyle report was slanted against the agency, quibbling with the wording of certain headlines in the report and the use of "sensationalistic" language. They also argued the report got some information wrong and left out pertinent facts.
"This thing is full of lies," Odom said.
His department attorney, Jim Gelpi, complained that the auditor would not give the agency a list of the people who received copies of the report in the mail, saying the number of copies made was unusually large.
Gelpi also raised questions about Kyle's employment practices, showing the panel a page from the legislative auditor's employee handbook that indicates staff members can take off 30 minutes early on Fridays as an incentive to work on that day. At the end of the hearing, Rep. Edwin Murray, D-New Orleans, asked Kyle to give the panel more information about that practice.
One focus of the department's rebuttal was the criticism of Odom's use of three agency planes. Gelpi highlighted several instances where the audit reports Odom was using a plane for personal purposes, saying the trips were actually on the department's behalf.
For example, Gelpi pointed to one trip labeled in the
report as a "Pentecostal Church Function," saying Odom actually went
to a meeting with then-President
In an interview after the hearing, Kyle questioned why Odom didn't provide that information to auditors after he received a draft copy of the final report. The department was given 16 days to go over the report and point out erroneous information, he said.
To figure out whether a trip was personal or work-related, Kyle said, they relied on the department's flight logs, as well as Odom's personal log.
"(Odom) is an old-fashioned politician who can't address the issues in the report, so he is attacking the messenger," Kyle said.
The council decided to table the report Wednesday. The panel has the option of either accepting the report, rejecting it or putting it aside, although a rejection does not mean the audit is withdrawn.
Schedler, who took over as the council chairman Wednesday when control of the panel shifted to the Senate, noted the matter is still before a grand jury.
"I don't know what we've accomplished. This issue will continue in a venue we have no control over," he said. . . . . . . . Laura Maggi can be reached at lmaggi@timespicayune.com or (225) 342-7315.
Well Mr. Helliker, What is not done for love is done for money.
Respectfully,
Stephen L. Tvedten
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