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Amtrak Transparency Troubles

By Michael Scherer | @michaelscherer | July 1, 2009 | +

A couple weeks back, I wrote about the turmoil in the office of the Inspector General for Amtrak. More details have since come out. The head of that office for 35 years, Fred Weiderhold, Jr., it turns out, retired just one day after a independent report he had commissioned was released, documenting a number of actions by Amtrak management that interfered with his authority as the Congressionally appointed watchdog. (You can read the whole report by clicking the link at the end of this letter here from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.)

Ed O’Keefe of the Washington Post gives a succinct summary of what the report found.

It concluded that Amtrak lawyers frequently compromised his investigations by pre-screening documents and redacting certain pieces of information, sitting in on IG interviews with employees, contractors and vendors, and prohibiting Widerhold and his staff from sharing sensitive agency information with Congress unless they first reviewed it. Amtrak management has also claimed control of the $5 million provided to the Amtrak IG by the economic stimulus package, according to the analysis.

Yesterday, as O’Keefe points out, a bipartisan group in the House joined Grassley in raising alarm bells, demanding that Amtrak management respond to the concerns raised in the report. No response yet.

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  • kathy

    Thanks for the update Michael. Sounds like a lot more than transparency troubles.

  • rmrd

    In other IG news, the Walpin firing has taken a strange turn. Among the documents supplied to the investigating Senate committee was a May 2008 parody newsletter published by staff members in Walpin’s office and approved by him as a gift for a retiring assistant inspector general. The newsletter contained fake news articles, including two with racial and sexual jokes referencing the federal procurement process and the government’s use of set-aside programs for minorities and disabled veterans.
    .
    One article refers to former New York governor Eliot L. Spitzer’s admitted use of a prostitution service “that specializes in the procurement of blondes, brunettes and redheads.” Another suggested the departing colleague had “finally procured her Federal retirement” from a vendor “known to be owned and operated by a qualified minority-female-veteran-disabled person.”
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    An employee later complained about the newsletter to agency management, who then addressed the matter with Walpin. He never issued a warning or disciplinary action about the matter, according to corporation officials.
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    Walpin said that his staff had enjoyed the newsletter’s humor and that no one had directly complained about its content. He acknowledged he spoke with the corporation’s general counsel about the complaints but took no disciplinary actions related to the newsletter because, “I still don’t see where it’s objectionable.”
    .
    The agency also provided a series of memos from January 2009 regarding an equal opportunity complaint filed against Walpin’s office. He raised procedural questions and suggested the investigation was handled unfairly, before admitting in a late January e-mail, “I had no prior experience and therefore no knowledge of the procedure.”
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    Stay tuned
    .
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/30/AR2009063004018.html?wprss=rss_politics

  • square1

    Wow. Sounds like Walpin has exposed the U.S. taxpayers up to liability from multiple discrimination claims. I am sure Republicans will support those who suffered through the toxic workplace atmosphere as strongly as they support white firefighters.
    .
    WRT to Amtrak, I will only say at this point that it is now clear that the Bush administration clearly politicized all agencies in the Executive Branch and left behind some choice partisan moles to throw wrenches into the Obama’s machinery (to mix metaphors).
    .
    Nevertheless, a couple of things should be recognized. First, just because some Bush appointees are sleazy political hacks (See Walpin) doesn’t mean that every situation involves such a dynamic.
    .
    Second, even if the AMTRAK IG issue ultimately involves bad judgment on Fred Weiderhold, Jr.’s part (and he wasn’t a Bush appointee), that doesn’t relieve the Obama administration of their duty to follow the law in these situations.
    .
    We saw during the Clinton administration in the Billy Dale/travel-office affair that just because an office holder behaves improperly doesn’t mean that an administation can’t screw up the removal process. And an IG doesn’t serve at the pleasure of the President.

  • plukasiak

    Scherer is disseminating far=right wing talking points here. The right is trying to make it appear that there is a problem with the Obama administration when it comes to inspectors general. But the Amtrak IG released a report about long-term problems with Amtrak (i.e. problems that are related to Bush administration era management, NOT Obama), and this Walpin guy is clearly a senile political hack.

    From Open Secrets….

    WALPIN, GERALD MR
    NEW YORK,NY 10075 U.S. GOVERNMENT/INSPECTOR GENERAL C 12/7/07 $1,000 Giuliani, Rudolph W (R)
    _
    WALPIN, GERALD MR
    NEW YORK,NY 10075 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT/INSPECTOR 3/28/08 $1,000 McCain, John (R)
    _
    WALPIN, GERALD MR
    NEW YORK,NY 10021 US GOVERNMENT/INSPECTOR GENERAL 5/5/08 $500 Dole, Elizabeth (R)
    _
    http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.php?name=walpin%2C+gerald&state=&zip=&employ=&cand=&all=Y&sort=N&capcode=txg4s&submit=Submit

  • http://aroundthesphere.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/throw-the-inspector-from-the-train/ Throw The Inspector From The Train « Around The Sphere

    [...] Michael Scherer at Swampland: A couple weeks back, I wrote about the turmoil in the office of the Inspector General for Amtrak. More details have since come out. The head of that office for 35 years, Fred Weiderhold, Jr., it turns out, retired just one day after a independent report he had commissioned was released, documenting a number of actions by Amtrak management that interfered with his authority as the Congressionally appointed watchdog. (You can read the whole report by clicking the link at the end of this letter here from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.) [...]

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  • FlownOver

    We need significantly more attention to passenger rail technology/investment/service. If the Amtrak bureaucracy is an impediment, either practically or politically, I hope the administration will start by kicking ass and taking names so a fresh, highly competent crew can get things moving without affording opportunities for partisan sniping.

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