Agency Adds Shredding of Documents to Inquiry
" Ms. Rehnquist, the daughter of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist,
was appointed by President Bush in August 2001. She supervises
a staff of 1,600 people who audit, investigate and evaluate more
than $460 billion a year in federal spending."
The New York Times
December 10, 2002
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 - Congressional investigators are looking
into the shredding and destruction of documents in the office of Janet
Rehnquist, inspector general of the Department of Health
and Human Services, administration officials said today.
The General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress,
was already conducting a comprehensive review of
Ms. Rehnquist's office after complaints from employees
who said she had politicized the agency, which investigates
fraud and abuse in federal programs.
The accounting office was investigating whether Ms. Rehnquist
kept a gun in her office without authorization, violated
personnel rules by ousting career employees and ordered
delays in a federal audit of the Florida state employees'
pension fund to avoid embarrassing Gov. Jeb Bush.
In its inquiry, the accounting office learned of the destruction
of documents in the office of the inspector general,
known as O.I.G. It informed Ms.
Rehnquist, who informed Congress.
"On Nov. 27, 2002," she said in a letter last week to the
two senators who initiated the inquiry, "William Scanlon
of the G.A.O. called Lewis Morris,
my chief counsel, to report that the G.A.O.
had received reports that in early November O.I.G.
documents had been shredded."
Mr. Morris then instructed employees in the office
to "stop all document destruction until further notice," Ms. Rehnquist said.
Ms. Rehnquist herself is apparently not suspected of destroying documents,
and she told the two senators, Charles E. Grassley, Republican of
Iowa, and Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, that her office
routinely destroyed documents that included "sensitive information such as
proprietary data."
Congressional investigators, who are still trying
to determine what papers were destroyed, said
they had not confirmed Ms. Rehnquist's suggestion
that the shredding was a routine procedure intended
to prevent the "inadvertent disclosure" of sensitive information.
The investigators said they had been told that documents
were shredded by Carolyn Lundberg, a lawyer who works part-time as counselor and
special assistant to Ms. Rehnquist, in an adjacent office. An aide said
Ms. Lundberg was not available to discuss the matter.
"Any destruction of documents in the face of a government
investigation is inappropriate," a Congressional investigator said.
Ms. Rehnquist, the daughter of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist,
was appointed by President Bush in August 2001. She supervises
a staff of 1,600 people who audit, investigate and evaluate more
than $460 billion a year in federal spending.
Judith A. Holtz, a spokeswoman for Ms. Rehnquist, said tonight that
many of the documents destroyed in recent weeks
were "old case files and correspondence" that would probably be of no
interest to the accounting office. "If other records were destroyed,"
Ms. Holtz said, "I have no knowledge of that."
The outside review of Ms. Rehnquist's office was requested by Senators
Grassley and Baucus in October.
Mr. Grassley, the author of a federal whistle-blower protection statute,
said he feared that the dismissal or reassignment of 19 senior executives
by Ms. Rehnquist would cripple the government's ability to root out waste
and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid,
the health programs for 70 million elderly, disabled and poor people.
In a letter requesting the review, the senators asked the accounting
office to determine if there had been any change in "the number and intensity of audits"
since Ms. Rehnquist took office.
Investigators from the accounting office met last week with aides to Ms. Rehnquist
to emphasize their concern and to request extra precautions to protect the documents
needed for their review. Ms. Rehnquist then alerted Congress to the possible
shredding of documents.
Ms. Rehnquist said in October that she would cooperate with the inquiry
requested by Congress. But Congressional investigators said they had
encountered some difficulties. On several occasions, they said, when
they identified an employee whom they wanted to interview, an aide to Ms.
Rehnquist intervened and questioned the employee, to find out what the person
would be telling the accounting office.
The latest turmoil has caused distress among internal investigators
at other agencies, who said that for years they viewed the inspector
general at the Department of Health and Human Services as a model.
nytimes.com Copyright The New York Times Company |
