The TSA is a lawless agency. They ignore valid orders by federal judges. They fine people that have already been cleared by the courts. They even argue explicitly that they’re above the law.
So it should come as no surprise that the Department of Homeland Security’s own Inspector General found (.pdf) that the agency’s obstruction of its investigations isn’t just incompetence, it’s intentional. In fact agency officials order employees to stonewall and refuse to produce documents that the government investigator asks for.
[O]n October 3, 2016, “TSA HQ – Executive Advisor” sent a communication to TSA’s OSC setting out instructions for interacting with the OIG. The email notifies TSA personnel that documents responsive to an OIG request must first be “cleared” within TSA before being provided to the OIG. The email also states that, prior to production to the OIG, documents are to be subjected to multiple levels of review within TSA..
Bikeriding Inside the Charleston, South Carolina Terminal
And they have a smoking gun:
What’s more, TSA employees are ordered not to even speak to government auditors without clearing it with senior TSA bosses first.
For avoidance of doubt, what the TSA’s leadership is doing is illegal and improper.
These internal TSA emails, of which we were unaware until recently, is contrary to previous DHS practice, violates the letter and intent of the Inspector General Act and DHS directives, and chills confidential communication with the OIG.
Since the Inspector General has a right to information that’s being ‘reviewed’ the review only gives the agency opportunity to improperly withhold information, and to prevent TSA employees from following their legal duties.
And instructing that employees not communicate with the Inspector General without permission “violates Section 7 of the IG Act, which permits employees to provide information confidentially to the IG without fear of reprisal.”
What’s more, in issuing these directives to staff TSA leadership violate their own agency’s rules (DHS Management Directive) which require prompt access to any and all information requested by the Office of Inspector General.
The TSA contends that even though these directives were discovered in writing, this isn’t their policy and they’ve ‘corrected it’. And they were only sent to a subset of employees. Thus the matter is closed, nothing else happens. Just as with defying federal courts, the agency learns they can violate the law with impunity and nothing happens as long as they promise to follow the law in the future (whether or not they actually do so).
(HT: saizai)
They learned about being above the law from the example of the IRS. It’s an adaptation of George Will’s precept: “It is axiomatic: When there is no penalty for failure, failures proliferate.”
Guy on the bike looks like a police officer, not a TSA agent.
Looks like obstruction of justice to me. Throw some people in jail.
If natural disasters are God’s way of punishing the sinful I can only imagine what scumbags live in houston.
All the memo says is that information should be cleared through a central communication channel. This is quite normal in an audit situation unless there is a specific requirement allowing unfettered access to information. Entities need only provide what is required.
Thanks Obama. So glad he is GONE
Wasn’t the biggest failure in the 911 event the unwillingness of the governmental agencies to communicate? Here we have the number one agency in charge of flight security, and their biggest goal is to shut down information. This country is doomed.
“In fact agency officials order employees to stonewall and refuse to produce documents…”
The fish stinks from the head, as they say….
So glad Drumpf is spending all his time to rectify this rather than tweeting nonsense all day. Oh, wait.
This is not an unusual practice during an audit. Any corporation will have someone who is responsible for vetting the documents that are turned over to the auditor. It, in itself, is not indicative of trying to subvert the law or the process. Its making sure inappropriate materials are not turned over as much as “cleansing” (if that’s even what happens) the documents to be turned over.
Sorry, Beth, but that’s not how it works in Federal agencies. The Inspectors General have the right to collect whatever information they want from whomever they want, and they will quickly blow the whistle on any manager who tries to control the flow of information to the IG. I know. I used to be a Federal CFO, and I was reprimanded for asking that one of my CFO staff members be in the room when the IG interviewed folks from our technical organizations.
Just another trash article driven by Gary’s boner for the TSA. I hope they revoke your PreCheck someday.
How would Trump be any help? He can’t even control the people he appoints inside his team, never mind having a clue about the outside world. Probably best to not let him screw things up worse than they are. He doesn’t exactly have a list of successes at anything.