The Republican staff of a House investigative committee has begun an inquiry into a complaint lodged with the U.S. government against the Bush administration’s inspector for Iraq reconstruction.
A GOP staff member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a statement Wednesday that says investigators have begun talking to former employees of Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
The statement came after The Examiner reported that six former SIGIR employees filed a complaint last year with the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency. It assigned two investigators, who continued to interview witnesses this month.
“Our staff is looking into this,” said the statement from the Republican staff of Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the committee’s ranking minority member. “We’re talking to former employees and other individuals who may be able to shed some light on the issues raised in the complaint.”
Bowen denied any wrongdoing in an interview with The Examiner on Tuesday and said he is confident the PCIE probe will exonerate him.
Members of Congress have praised Bowen’s investigations of some $30 billion in Iraq reconstruction and development funds since his appointment by the Bush administration in January 2004.
The former employees’ eight-page, anonymous complaint charged that Bowen missed work for extended periods of time in 2004 to 2005, and sometimes in 2006. It recounted one instance in which a deputy had to call Bowen’s father to locate him after he failed to report to work for weeks.
Bowen said he took some unpaid leave, conducted meetings outside the office and worked at home on reports. “It’s documented I’ve worked hundreds of hours of overtime for which I will not be paid,” he said in the interview.
He said the PCIE’s Integrity Committee informed him last May that the absenteeism charge was not part of the investigation.
A former employee recently interviewed by a PCIE investigator said he was asked about Bowen’s attendance. The staffer forDavis said investigators will look at that charge.
The House committee has Republican and Democratic staffs, who sometimes do separate investigations or combine to do a joint probe. Committee chairman Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif. leads the Democratic staff .
Bowen said the Integrity Committee informed him that three issues will be investigated: the awarding of a SIGIR contract to an auditing firm, savings estimates provided to the Office of Management and Budget, and money spent to produce a book on the history of SIGIR.
The complaint said SIGIR in 2005 provided OMB with an estimate it had produced $10 billion in savings. The complaint described the estimate as “fabricated savings amounts.”
