Yet another Obama Cabinet failure – Jon Cannon quits due to Clean Water Foundation scandals

Another day, another Obama Cabinet appointee has to withdraw due to scandals. Jon Cannon, nominee for Deputy U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator. In all my years of witnessing politics, I have NEVER seen anything like this with a President selecting his cabinet. Sure there is always problems with some original appointees, but this is beyond a comedy show. As of the time of this post, naturally no MSM have any news stories up about this scandal/withdrawl yet, but Michelle Malkin found this EPA report from 2007 on how the America’s Clean Water Foundation mishandled three huge government grants totaling nearlly $26 million:

The Foundation did not comply with the financial and program management standards and the procurement standards promulgated in Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 30. Specifically, the Foundation (1) could not provide support for any of its general journal entries; (2) included duplicate transactions in its accounting system; (3) recorded labor charged to EPA grants incorrectly; (4) could not support the recorded indirect costs; (5) claimed unallowable preaward costs; (6) recorded EPA cash draws inaccurately; (7) did not submit required indirect cost proposals to EPA; (8) did not complete the required single audits for fiscal years ended June 30, 2003, June 30, 2004, and June 30, 2005; and (9) did not submit a Federal Cash Transactions Report when required.

The Foundation’s procurement practices and procedures did not comply with the grant regulations. The Foundation awarded sole source contracts without performing the cost/price analysis required by Title 40 CFR 30.45. It also awarded a contract to a member of its Board of Directors, contrary to the conflict of interest provisions at Title 40 CFR 30.42, and reimbursed a contractor for billings above contractual ceilings. Because the Foundation did not adequately document its costs and did not comply with the EPA regulations, we questioned the Federal share claimed of $25,372,590.

The America’s Clean Water Foundation disappeared soon after the discovery of financial shenanigans.

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March 25, 2009 · Filed Under Obama's Cabinet


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