Charges Not New to LANL
Wednesday, December 4, 2002
By Adam Rankin
Copyright © 2002 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Northern Bureau
SANTA FE — Allegations that Los Alamos National Laboratory managers covered up waste or mismanagement date to the mid-1990s.
Lab employees made such allegations in court depositions years before the current controversy over alleged purchasing and property-control problems at the lab.
Chuck Montaño, a lab employee and an advocate for lab employee rights, said the testimonies suggest recent allegations of a cover-up at the lab are not off-base because there is a history of such practices at the lab.
"In those depositions, the point was made that there was a good, concerted effort to prevent problems from coming to the surface, and that is the claim being made now," he said.
He also said the lab's audit system isn't catching waste, abuse and fraud because it no longer operates independently of the lab, as it once did before 1992 when the Department of Energy combined the audit function with the operation of the lab.
Recent revelations of fraud and abuse of government money at the lab and the firings of two lab employees who were investigating the problems have critics questioning whether the lab is hiding broader management problems.
"What we've long worried about is that excessive secrecy breeds abuse of power," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Washington-based Project on Government Oversight. "What we're hearing more and more of is clearly evidence of that at Los Alamos."
LANL director John Browne has said he responded as quickly as possible by requesting an investigation by the DOE's inspector general and an external audit group when allegations of a LANL cover-up first became public in an anonymous e-mail in October.
He also said University of California auditors have visited the lab and made management recommendations, many of which had already been implemented.
Linn Tytler, a spokesperson for the lab, said the lab has cooperated with investigations by outside agencies, including the FBI and DOE, and "eagerly awaits" their reports.
Previous testimony
Glenn Walp, head of the lab's Office of Security Inquiries, and Steve Doran, a security specialist under Walp, have said the lab fired them in late November after less than a year on the job because they attempted to reveal wrongdoings that lab managers tried to cover up.
Phil Kruger, the deputy director of human resources at the lab, said last week the two were fired because several divisions at the lab "lost confidence" in the pair.
Doran said past testimony bolsters his argument that the lab's Audits and Assessments Division was party to some of the problems he and Walp were investigating, including an agreement to allow an employee to repay $1,800 in stolen lab money and resign without prosecution.
Tommy Hook, former senior adviser for audits in the lab's Internal Evaluation Office, testified in 1997 that his boss — still head of the lab's Audits and Assessments Division — "didn't want to aggressively report findings."
He said Katherine Brittin, who came to LANL as head of Audits and Assessments in 1994, "didn't want to see certain things put in reports," including "unallowable costs" and "embarrassment to the university." LANL is run by the University of California, which has held the contract to operate LANL since 1943.
Brittin, reached at her office Tuesday evening, declined to comment. Montaño said Brittin denied Hook's allegations in a deposition she gave for a layoff suit that was not accessible Tuesday.
Hook's testimony was given as part of a lawsuit against LANL in response to a number of 1995 layoffs, which employees contended disproportionately affected Hispanics and other minorities.
He said Brittin "threatened" him if he did not comply with how she wanted to handle internal audit findings.
"She told me basically, if those findings cost the university money, that it could be my job; it could be my raise; it could be my future; it could be my staff's jobs; etc.," Hook said.
When audit reports indicated waste spending or poor management, Hook testified that many such audits, which required Brittin's approval, would "sit there for months without moving off her desk."
Hook testified that when Brittin discovered Michael Ares, an auditor under Brittin, went directly to the Department of Energy's inspector general about one of the audit reports, she said "I'd like to rip his (expletive) face off."
He also said Brittin told him to be sure auditors did not go directly to the inspector general with reports before going through the management of Audits and Assessments.
Hook, who is still a lab employee though he resigned his post from Audits and Assessments in 1995, was reached at home Monday and declined to comment on his testimony.
Operation shift
Montaño, a team leader in LANL's general accounting operation, said the problem with the Audits and Assessments Division is that it reports to lab management, which it is supposed to be auditing, and not an independent body or board of directors as it did when it was operated out of the University of California's Office of the President.
Jeff Garberson, a spokesman for the University of California, said DOE combined the university's contract to audit the lab with the operating contract in 1992.
Montaño was a lab auditor when the function was transferred to the lab.
In testimony given during the same 1997 layoff lawsuit in which Hook testified, Montaño said "clearly we had much greater independence being under the University Office of the President as opposed to being directly under lab management."
"The laboratory did not want us to be so aggressive," he said. "In fact ... we were told many times that their concern was that these findings would then get into the hands of the public and trigger some questions or trigger additional inquiries, audits or other inquiries."
The DOE's Inspector General's Office recently sent a team to Los Alamos to look into allegations made in an anonymous e-mail to the news media and a watchdog group that LANL officials have covered up theft and other illegal activity at the lab. Lab officials say the lab is cooperating fully in the investigation.
The FBI is investigating allegations of at least $50,000 in questionable purchases that two lab employees, including a $150,000-a-year supervisor, made through an Albuquerque supplier.
Also Tuesday, Governor-elect Bill Richardson, who served as secretary of the Energy Department from 1998 to 2000, said he was unaware of any allegations that the lab attempted to cover up government waste or fraud during his tenure as head of DOE in the Clinton administration and that the National Nuclear Security Administration had oversight of lab audits.
"All I can say about what happened at the labs — that better not happen here in state government," he said at a news conference.
Documents show that the lab has listed millions of dollars worth of items as "lost or stolen" or missing from inventory since 1998, but lab officials have said that many unaccounted items actually have much less value after depreciation and may not actually be missing.
How many screwups does it take to become a New Mexico governor?
ReplyDeleteAnswer: As many as you can muster.
Here's Bill Richardson, like Sargent Schultz of Hogan's Heros fame..."I see nothing, I hear nooothhhing!"
Yea right!
For many years before this incident I was always warned about Tommy Hook and his crusade to become a whistleblower.
ReplyDeleteHis beating has nothing to do with the laboratory, he got caught at the strip club and invented a convienint story so his wife would not divorce him.
His behavior has been scandalous.
The posting above admonishing a true national hero--Tommy Hook, is what's scandalous. But it says a lot regarding the mental state of once great Los Alamos National Laboratory these days. It's an institution that's lost its focus and its way.
ReplyDeleteTrue national hero? It sounds like you need to be drug tested ASAP
ReplyDeleteDrug testing is the least of the Lab's problems. What about the rampant corruption? That's the elephant in the living room that everyone keeps trying to ignore.
ReplyDelete4:30PM must be going senile. Remember Bussolini? How about Jennings? Wake up your brain and read this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abqjournal.com/north/181281north_news05-30-04.htm
And how about the Mustang?
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/000482.html
As for racism LANL as an institution is racist, and that too has been proven!
Read This:
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Last modified Monday, May 22, 2006 10:30 AM MDT
UC settles bias claims
ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor
Late in the afternoon on Friday, Los Alamos National Laboratory announced a settlement had been reached on two class-action lawsuits against the Regents of the University of California for discrimination against female and Hispanic employees.
The amount of the settlement was not mentioned in the laboratory's press release, but a subsequent announcement by plaintiff's lawyers put the amount at $12 million plus costs and legal fees, subject to court approval.
Chris Harrington, spokesman for the University said, "We're glad to have the settlement submitted to the courts and to be moving on."
The settlement may exceed a similar agreement in November 2003, when UC resolved a class action lawsuit alleging discrimination against some 3,000 female employees for $10.6 million.
Harrington said the university does not rank its settlements, and that it was not the largest settlement, "but it is clearly a large settlement."
The Los Alamos case began as a gender discrimination suit. It was later split into two cases, with one representing both female and Hispanic employees. The cases were certified by the court as a class actions on behalf of all female and Hispanic employees who worked at the laboratory between December 2000 and the present, who can demonstrate they shared similar situations.
The complaints were settled during arduous, "sometimes contentious," and difficult negotiation over the last year, even with the help of two mediators, said attorney Patrick Allen, who represented Laura Barber, on behalf of female employees. Allen is with the firm Yenson, Lynn, Allen &
Wosick.
"This settlement comes at a critical moment for one of the nation's most prominent national laboratories." Barber said in a prepared statement, "We are confident that this settlement will send a message to the current and future operator of Los Alamos National Laboratory, as well as other government contractors, that women are entitled to equal pay for equal work."
The other complaint, based on violations of the New Mexico Human Rights Act and the Equal Pay Act, was brought on behalf of Yolanda Garcia, Loyda
Martinez, Gloria Bennett, Yvonne Ebelacker, Hispanic Roundtable of New Mexico and the University Professional and Technical Employees union. This group was
represented by John C. Bienvenu of Rothstein, Donatelli, Hughes, Dahlstrom, Schoenburg & Bienvenu.
The laboratory denied culpability. "According to the settlement agreement, the laboratory expressly disputes any allegation of discrimination or wrongdoing and does not admit any liability."
The settlement includes both monetary and non-monetary aspects, he said. Monetary compensation will be determined through the claims process and include both compensatory damages and back-wages for females and Hispanics
who qualify.
As many as 5,000 people would be in the class, Allen said, but it would be fairly speculative to predict how many will apply or be eligible for damages.
Non-monetary aspects of the settlement include the laboratory's agreement to
rework how they are going to pay new hires, the basis of some of the past salary issues.
The laboratory also agreed to implement a child care program by the end of the contract, Allen said. He added that it was expected that these changes would carry over to the new contractor.
The suit grew out of a history of complaints, including evidence of
discrimination against Hispanic employees charged in an informal survey by
the Hispanic Round Table in 2001, and a study by the General Accounting
Office (now called Government Accountability Office), indicating inequities
for minorities and white women.
In 2003, the laboratory commissioned a study, known as the Welch Report that found pay equity discrepancies between men and women and between whites and
Hispanics in four job categories.
The Department of Energy, Harrington said, has signed off on the settlement and it will be considered an allowable cost under the current contract, for which UC will be compensated.
Don't overlook the secretive discrimination against non-mormons. It is deeply entrenched and hidden. It is just a matter of time before they prevail.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the crop circles.
ReplyDeleteWhat a waste of brain capacity to spend an entire career at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in denial. Yes indeed, let's just keep pretending we're still the crown jewel of the DOE complex.
ReplyDeleteHook should be jailed for trying to cover up his personal indiscretions by blaming them against LANL. LANL should bring a civil suit to recover the monetary damage of such actions. We as taxpayers should initiate a class action lawsuit against him for his fradulent and detrimental accusations!!
ReplyDeleteAs for the two convicted of beating him... what a hunk of crap that they have to pay his medical bills....HE PICKED the FIGHT
Was it Tommy Hook who blew the whistle on the $millions worth of out of control property still at the lab, lying under the indifferent nose of Rich Marquez and his "ace" Government Property staff who "don't care about anything less than $5K unless it's a camera or tape recorder". Might it have been Hook who brought to light the Graceland Fiasco which housed LANL Government Property people inside one of the actual buildings in question who actually said: "we don't care because the $1-2M worth of stuff we were literally standing in was all less than $5K on a unit cost basis". Was it Tommy Hook who pointed out that it wasn't just the risk of theft but the the misappopriation of funds involving padded Work Order material estimates approved by LANL & its major facilites contractor senior management in order to have more chargeable time for union employees and friends and brothers for largely non-productive work. Was it Tommy Hook who filed numerous complaints on the gross overcharging of labor to some facilities work orders using "free" uncontrolled materials to create those extra chargeable labor hours for friends and neighbors. Do ya think it was Tommy who reported that a major lab subcontractor was unfairly benfitting from the above examples in the form of extra profit for great cost control when in fact it was grossly overrunning budgets. Do you think Tommy might have been involved in exposing the risk for huge Price Anderson violation potential with the mega amount of uncontrolled materials/tools lying around LANL which no-one can verify have or have not been used been used in NQA1 or safety related work. Could it have Tommy who pointed out that any contractor knowingly claiming great cost performance (when in fact they were covering up overruns and using old, used, or previously double ordered materials from other LANL jobs) might be violating the False Claims Act?
ReplyDeleteSure seems like if it WAS Tommy, he'd have a long list of folks out to open up a can of "whoopass" on him...
If not.....ooops I guess I opened up can of worms which hasn't yet been brought to light by anyone with the balls that Hook had then...
Don't worry however, LANL and NNNSA and DOE IG have all said it looks OK to them, the LANL folks that let it happen (and allow it to continue to exist) all have their jobs, so it must be a total fabrication and nothing to it....no need to look any further...No Price Anderson violations around here...no sireee. Yep we run a tight ship here...
Get lost. You just sound like some sort of bitter loser. It is pretty obvious that Tommy Hooks beating had absolutely nothing to do with him being a whistleblower. He went to a strip club got drunk, got in a fight, end of story. It looks like he made up the thing about being called that night. I think anything he said or has said in the past is now completely suspect. The realty is LANL is just not that bad and we have far less problems and incidents that most other companies and labs. This has been shown time and time again.
ReplyDeleteHas it ever occurred to you that the world is not that bad of place but all this time it has been you who has been a worthless person trying to make the world a bad place? Think about it.
6/1/07 2:10 PM
ReplyDeleteAmen.
All you people are amazing and just give the idiots in power more ammo. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteAlso amen to 2:10pm
ReplyDeleteIt just occurred to me that Hook used to be the Labs whistleblower officer. That would explain the anti Hook commentary. Undoubtedly some of those fraudsters are using this blog to carve out their pound of flesh. Revenge is the order of the day in other words. How pathetic.
ReplyDeleteFuck 2:10PM and those that worship the fool. I don't know much about the Lab, but I'm a taxpayer and I'm fed up with all the waste. If Hook was trying to hold the fat cats accountable for wasting MY money, then the guy deserves a medal in my book and would venture to guess that most taxpayers feel the same. Only the hogs at the Lab feeding at the taxpayer trough can't appreciate what Hook did for us, the taxpayers.
ReplyDelete8:05AM and 10:04AM
ReplyDeleteI is kind of obvious that you are the same poster who keeps spouting off the same anti lab garbage. You never produce any facts, figures or comparisons to other institutions. It is clear you have some kind of agenda and you are not just some outside concerned
taxpayer. My guess is that you used to be at LANL and got fired or was told that your performace was so poor that you where in danger of being fired. Now you are just a very sad, lonely shell of a human being who is cannot live with the truth about themselves.
10:26PM sounds like the pathetic loser that keeps harping on how Hook should be tossed in jail for putting his face in the fist of the two scumbags that kicked the shit out of him. Look who's calling who a lonly shell of a human being. I can agree with one thing this bozo has to say however, there probably someone who keeps posting over and over and over his twisted view of the world. It's this guy!
ReplyDeleteSeems to me like 6:01PM posted some pretty hard to ignore facts.
ReplyDelete6:01 posted quite a lot of stuff. While there is no doubt some discrimination and racism in a population of 12,000 employees, most of the coworkers of at least one woman claimant felt that she earned more than equal pay for less than equal work. Were there others? Don't know. Have direct knowledge of only one.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading some of the Hook-bashing in this blog I think it's fair to say that had Jesus Christ worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in today’s climate, the outcome for him would have been no different than it was in his day. The status quo still can't accept do-gooders in its midst in other words, and the mob mentality still reigns supreme.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the following article is what's got 3:41PM's panties in a bunch. Maybe he was in cahoots with good ol' Bussolini. I'm sure John Jennings didn't receive much support from 3:41PM either. I don't think anybody that blows the whistle on 3:41PM and his kind will ever get much support at the Lab. There are just too many of them.
ReplyDeleteURL: http://www.abqjournal.com/north/181281north_news05-30-04.htm
Sunday, May 30, 2004
Lab Worker Aided FBI in Theft Case
By Adam Rankin
Journal Staff Writer
For months, John Jennings led two lives.
On the surface, the longtime Los Alamos National Laboratory employee continued his relationship with his boss, Peter Bussolini, whom he viewed as a mentor and father figure.
For his part, Bussolini seemed to encourage that relationship, alternately praising and criticizing Jennings and referring to him as his "son" in various communications.
But at the same time, Jennings was tormented by the work he secretly performed for the FBI, which was investigating suspected fraud and theft of laboratory property. Many of those allegations centered on Bussolini, and Jennings reported to federal agents many of the specifics that contributed to Bussolini's firing in December 2002.
The double life lasted only seven weeks, from Sept. 13 through Oct. 31, but Jennings said during this period he was so stressed he gained 10 pounds a week.
"I was eating to kind of numb my feelings and hide what I knew," he said.
The 67-year-old Bussolini, who was earning $150,000 a year at the time he was fired, and Scott Alexander, 42, a purchaser who worked for him, were both indicted last week on 28 federal counts of theft, fraud and other charges.
The charges stem from allegations that the two used their positions of power, influence and familiarity with LANL's procurement system to illegally buy more than $328,000 worth of equipment, some for their own use, between February 2001 and October 2002.
Gear found by LANL officials included high-end barbecue grills, night-vision binoculars, TVs and thousands of dollars worth of military knives.
"Jennings was a key player in bringing the house of cards down," said Glenn Walp, former LANL head of security investigations.
Until now, Jennings, 54, says he was loyal above all to the laboratory, where he has worked for 28 years— and, by extension, to his boss, Bussolini.
Jennings worked under Bussolini for close to a decade, most recently as a safety specialist. He repeatedly refused interview requests, saying the time wasn't right.
Now he blames the laboratory for turning on him— even though he revealed to the FBI what he knew about the man he once considered "family."
And that, he says, is why he now has agreed to tell his story.
'Unwilling participant'
Blinded by his affection and loyalty to Bussolini, Jennings said he unwittingly helped transport about eight boxes of lab-bought equipment and patio furniture to Bussolini's home in 2001 before becoming suspicious.
Transporting the boxes is the biggest factor in LANL's decision to reprimand Jennings for failing to adequately safeguard lab property, even though LANL investigators conclude: "In the final analysis, it appears that Jennings was nothing more than an unwilling participant to the extent he assisted (Bussolini's) misconduct."
LANL spokesman James Rickman said LANL officials responded to the situation appropriately: they fired Bussolini and Alexander and gave Jennings a formal reprimand.
The reprimand will stay in his personnel file for two years, then disappear without negative consequence as long as he is not involved in another incident.
"Mr. Jennings stopped transporting materials to Mr. Bussolini's house after becoming suspect of the transfers but failed to report that to Laboratory officials at the time," according to LANL's reprimand of Jennings.
Jennings is challenging the lab's findings.
Work relationship
The last time Jennings saw Bussolini was the day his boss was put on investigative leave on Oct. 31, 2002. Bussolini hung up the phone after being called into the office of their division director, Jennings said.
" 'I hope to God you had nothing to do with him calling me,' '' Jennings said Bussolini told him.
Jennings said he didn't.
"'Cause I'd kill you if you did,' '' Jennings said Bussolini replied.
Bussolini, who has not returned repeated phone calls seeking comment and declined an interview when a reporter knocked on his door months ago, is suspected of doing "enormously inappropriate things" to Jennings at various times, according to LANL witnesses quoted in an internal investigation.
The report noted LANL witnesses said Bussolini "played upon Jennings' weaknesses and manipulated him into doing his bidding, and constantly threatened Jennings' job."
Bussolini was highly respected and well liked in Los Alamos. He was on the board of trustees for the Los Alamos United Way, and he won environmental engineering awards at the laboratory.
But according to LANL's internal report on Jennings, Bussolini played mind games with Jennings, sometimes berating him— one day he poured Coke all over Jennings' desk as Jennings sat there, watching him— then complimenting him.
Jennings said Bussolini would often encourage him, tell him he loved to see him at work early and lingering late at night, told him he couldn't do his job without him.
"I eat that stuff up more than I do a paycheck, you know?" Jennings said.
"The guy (Jennings) had a very low self-esteem, and he basically wanted to be accepted by everyone," especially by Bussolini, said Steve Doran, a LANL security specialist working in cooperation with the FBI at the time, in a phone interview with the Journal.
Doran and his boss, Walp, were both fired from LANL in November 2002 and later settled out-of-court claims that they were fired in retaliation for trying to expose the wrongdoing.
"Bussolini basically acted like a father figure to John, and I believe John, at that particular point in time, would have done anything for Bussolini," Doran said.
On Oct. 4, 2002, just weeks before the FBI would search his home, RV and office, Bussolini sent an e-mail to Jennings.
He wrote, "I need you to be the 'rock of Gibralter (sic)' right now for me ... You are still my 'son' so don't worry and be happy."
Within this context, Jennings says he tried to do the right thing, but it was hard— painfully hard.
He knew Bussolini and respected him. He knew Bussolini's wife, Lee.
'I feel betrayed'
Jennings moved to Los Alamos in 1960 and went to school with Lee's younger sister. And Jennings recalled an incident in which his daughter had been badly injured in an automobile accident years earlier. Jennings said Lee Bussolini— a Los Alamos nurse— administered CPR to his daughter in the back of an ambulance en route to Santa Fe.
"(Jennings) basically feels like whatever Bussolini says is law," Doran said in describing Jennings' allegiance to Bussolini.
But eventually, Doran said, Jennings saw things were going wrong. Things started to change when Alexander, who grew up across the street from Bussolini in White Rock, became Bussolini's "boy" over Jennings, Doran said.
Jennings said the turning point came the day he made his final delivery of boxes to Bussolini's house. Bussolini's daughter asked Jennings, "So, you're stealing for my daddy?"
But it was still several months before Jennings would report anything to LANL officials.
Not until May 2002 did Jennings go to Walp and make the first vague allegations that something was wrong.
Several days later, Jennings said he went to LANL's Audits and Assessments division to tell officials there they should look into a blanket purchase agreement that had little oversight or accountability.
"Two hours after I went there, Pete found out that I talked to them, so that started making life get miserable," Jennings said.
But Jennings said things took another turn for the worse once he started cooperating with the FBI in September. He said he felt like he was betraying a man he loved.
Jennings' eyes filled with tears as he described a confrontation with Bussolini in which his boss sought assurances that Jennings was keeping quiet about the things he knew.
"He said, 'Look me in the eyes, John, and tell me nothing's wrong.' ''
Jennings told him, "Nothing's wrong," but the stress of the confrontation ended with Jennings retching outside the building afterward.
"I had to keep lying to Pete," he said. "(FBI agent Jeff) Campbell said I didn't have any choice. I didn't want this to be part of my job."
But it was, and LANL officials don't think he did it well enough.
By accepting Bussolini's claims that he paid for the items himself, "Jennings essentially turned a blind eye to the possibility that (Bussolini) had obtained the items inappropriately," according to LANL's report.
To Jennings, a year short of retirement, this conclusion is a stain on what he says is an otherwise-unblemished record that has left him angry and hurt.
"I feel betrayed by the laboratory because I have really lost so much and stuck my neck out so much," he said.
From the Story 6/2/07 4:14 PM posted - "I feel betrayed by the laboratory because I have really lost so much and stuck my neck out so much," he (Jennings) said.
ReplyDeleteNot a big surprise and quite appropriate to what is going on at LANL today. Numerous of people feel that way right now about the ADs (who rose up from LANL) and in particular the PADSTE who has sold out several people to get to where he is today.
Giving this guy Jennings a reprimand really sounds a bit over the top. I don't think that people really have a good understanding about how much control and pressure supervisors exert over subordinats at LANL. Employees who complain up the chain of command are retaliated against.
ReplyDeleteI do know that there is always pressure from the DOE that whenever something goes wrong, somebody must be punished.
Of course, nothing that Bussolini, Walp, Doran, or Hook say can be believed.
And, the FBI seem to have botched everything that they have been involved in over the past few years: the Wen Ho Li case, the Ruby Ridge incident, and the Branch Davidians incident.
8:12 says "the FBI seem to have botched everything that they have been involved in over the past few years: the Wen Ho Li case, the Ruby Ridge incident, and the Branch Davidians incident."
ReplyDeleteIs that everything the FBI has done in the past few years? They would seem to be less busy than we are. And we thought the Jennings reprimand was over the top.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteDrug testing is the least of the Lab's problems. What about the rampant corruption? That's the elephant in the living room that everyone keeps trying to ignore.
5/31/07 4:34 PM
What about the donkey in the kitchen crappin in all of the food?
I'm sure we would all like to thank 8:22 AM for a well considered and articulated message.
ReplyDelete