CRIME DOES PAY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

[Psycho]

CRIME DOES PAY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

 

 

Recently, I made a statement to the Office of the United States Attorney that the DC Office of Campaign Finance does not have any qualified or trained investigators or a CPA who is experienced in campaign finance auditing. Thus DC OCF is not currently staffed with qualified people to do the job they are charged with.

 

Add to that, a previous finding by the DC Inspector General that the DC OCF is riddled with corruption in the form of enriching itself, tendering favors to elected officials and more: E.g: [ http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/ig030522b.htm ]

 

For the past year the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has conducted an investigation under the supervision of the U.S. Attorney's Office concerning allegations that executive-level officials of the District of Columbia Office of Campaign Finance (OCF) and the Board of Elections and Ethics (BOEE) have used their positions improperly to enrich themselves at the expense of District of Columbia taxpayers. In addition, my Office has conducted an inquiry into claims that a pattern exists of selective enforcement of campaign finance laws by OCF in order to shield certain elected officials from potential sanctions or embarrassment as a result of public disclosure of violations. Other allegations include the failure and/or refusal by OCF management to notify agencies with appropriate jurisdiction when OCF auditors found evidence of criminal violations, Hatch Act violations, and the failure to report income which is subject to federal and D.C. income taxes. This letter is intended to provide an overview of our investigative efforts and to inform you of the resistance and political pressure from certain D.C. council members that we have experienced in conducting our inquiry.

 

and our elected officials know that they can break the law and get away with it.

 

In a recent and high profile matter of Councilman Jack Evans, it was concluded publicly that he had done no wrong after being accused of misgivings for over twelve years in a final report, although an earlier, published report by DC OCF did find wrong-doing until William Jarvis went in and twisted some arms, called in favors and so on. Jarvis wrote in part the final report which DC OCF signed off on. (Jarvis had evidence/knowledge of official and unofficial misconduct of OCF officials and used it to get what he wanted out of the OCF)

 

Former DC Inspector General Charles Maddox was viciously attacked for his honesty by former DC City Councilman Vincent Orange for his report as Maddox stepped on a sacred cow; namely, DC OCF which is the DC City Council’s means to violate campaign finance laws, keep challengers in the election process at bay and never face penalties for it civilly or criminally.

 

This is just an example of why those who do wrong inside DC Government are rarely brought to justice because those who have the ability to do such are threatened to be exposed for wrongs they have done.

 

The only power we have in DC to break down the wall of corruption is the Office of the United States Attorney and its investigative arm, the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

 

As an activist for clean government, I have learned over the years that the best source to get to the truth are unhappy DC Government employees who have been unreasonably abused by their superiors, denied advancement and more. Yet, I think even journalists already know this and most of the time, this avenue of information is usually quite accurate.

 

It is said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

 

I believe that the corruption in DC Government will not end until either the U.S. Attorney starts slamming these people more often or the U.S. Congress abolishes “Home Rule” and dissolve the office of the mayor, city council and places all DC agencies under their federal counter-part.

 

Until the foregoing is done, all of us who contribute to “TheMail” and other message boards will have a deep well of grievances to talk about.