Mark Tapscott

Read the latest stories and analysis from Mark Tapscott.

An estimated 49 million Americans depend upon $2.7 trillion in employee benefit pension plan assets that either aren't fully audited or get a meaningless annual certification of their value, according to the Department of Labor inspector general. (iStock)

Trillions in pension plan assets can’t be verified, Labor Department IG reports

Mark Tapscott · October 5, 2014 6:00 pm

The Postal Service has issued 12,000 Voyager credit cards used by contractors to buy 1.6 billions gallons of diesel fuel to carry the mail since 2005, the USPS inspector general said in a report made public Friday. (iStock)

Post office’s contractor gas credit card program is ‘not manageable,’ IG says

Mark Tapscott · October 5, 2014 2:43 pm

A Denver-based nonprofit advocacy group for the homeless that has received more than $90 million in federal grants refuses to heed official rules on how tax dollars can be spent, according to a government watchdog. (iStock Photo)

Homeless advocates refuse to follow federal-grant spending regulations

Mark Tapscott · October 4, 2014 9:00 am

There were at least 81,752 exemptions of the Freedom of Information Act to justify withholding documents sought by journalists and private citizens in 2013. (iStock Photo)

Beltway Confidential

Transparency critics are peddling public ignorance to ‘fix’ government

Mark Tapscott · October 4, 2014 9:00 am

In the three years before the settlement in July 2011, Center for Biological Diversity's Endangered Species Director Noah Greenwald said, CBD filed 20 ESA petitions to protect 466 species and 26 lawsuits to protect species. (iStock Photo)

Energy and Environment

UPDATED: Energy group’s ESA report ‘incredibly inaccurate,’ environmentalists counter

Mark Tapscott · October 3, 2014 4:32 pm

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Amy Berman Jackson granted Cause of Action's motion for a summary judgement, thus requiring TIGTA to provide documents the group requested in 2012 concerning correspondence between the IRS and the White House. (iStock)

Court says TIGTA must process FOIA on White House access to tax records

Mark Tapscott · September 30, 2014 8:47 pm

Wild Earth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity entered into an agreement in 2011 with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to settle ESA litigation on 1,008 species the groups claimed were threatened with extinction. The agreement provided that the two groups would initiate fewer such actions. (iStock)

Energy and Environment

Energy group claims enviros suing more often, not less, despite 2011 deal

Mark Tapscott · September 30, 2014 9:00 am

Environmental Protection Agency officials spent millions of tax dollars over a dozen years on an alternative asbestos removal study that "threatened human health."Â (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty images)

Energy and Environment

Lax EPA asbestos study endangered public health, wasted millions, IG says

Mark Tapscott · September 27, 2014 6:00 pm

The Government Accountability Office said its analysis "found that most agencies showed no statistically significant change in use during this period" in a report made public Friday. (iStock Photo)

Federal managers show little decision-making progress, GAO finds

Mark Tapscott · September 26, 2014 5:49 pm

Former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson (AP/Alex Brandon)

Energy and Environment

EPA’s Jackson didn’t list official records when she left

Mark Tapscott · September 25, 2014 4:46 pm

There is no documentation for more than $22 million worth of repairs that postmasters and other postal officials paid for last year with credit cards, according to USPS inspector general. (iStock)

Postal officials resist upgrade to verify $22 million in repairs

Mark Tapscott · September 24, 2014 9:00 am

The Vieques Sports City Complex was never built because an environmentalist lawsuit dragged on unresolved for nearly a decade before it was settled. (iStock)

Apathetic HUD officials lose $10.8 million on failed Puerto Rican sports complex

Mark Tapscott · September 23, 2014 6:00 pm