FederalDaily - November 8, 2007
Jury Convicts Contractor in Defense Appropriations Bribery Scandal
A former military contractor was convicted Nov. 5 of bribing former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham,
D-Calif., with cash, trips and other gifts—including the services of prostitutes—in exchange
for nearly $90 million in Pentagon work. Brent R. Wilkes, 53, of Poway, Calif., was convicted in a
San Diego federal court on all 13 counts involving more than $700,000 in bribes and now faces up to
20 years in prison. He formerly headed Auto Document Conversion Systems (ADCS), a now-defunct company
specializing in maintaining and analyzing electronic records and intelligence documents. Throughout
the investigation and trial, Wilkes denied bribing Cunningham, who chaired the powerful House Defense
Appropriations subcommittee. Wilkes testified he believed that giving gifts to powerful members of
Congress was an accepted practice among firms jockeying to win military contracts. One of the counts
against Wilkes involved secret payments to help Cunningham buy a home in exclusive Rancho Santa Fe,
Calif. In 2005, a series of articles by Copley News Service journalist Marcus Stern and colleagues
made the payments public, and Cunningham pleaded guilty to accepting $2.4 million in bribes from Wilkes
and others. To see more, go to: www.usdoj.gov/usao/cas
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CBP Should Improve Border Security, Staffing
Understaffing and inadequate training continue to hamper Customs and Border Protection (CBP) efforts
at securing borders and keeping terrorists and other dangerous aliens from entering the United States,
said a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The GAO examined CBP traveler inspection
efforts in an attempt to identify progress the agency has made following a 2006 CBP report that found
weaknesses in inspection procedures. More improvements are needed at the agency, the new GAO report
found. For example, CBP has not established an internal control to ensure field office managers share
their assessments with CBP headquarters to ensure that the new procedures are consistently implemented
across all ports of entry, the report said. Complicating matters is a lack of staffing. GAO auditors
said CBP managers at 19 of the 21 offices reviewed cited staffing shortages as preventing various anti-terrorism
activities from being fully implemented. Also, at seven of the eight major ports of entry GAO visited,
officers and managers said a lack of sufficient staff contributes to morale problems, fatigue, lack
of backup support and safety issues. For more on the Nov. 5 report, go to: www.gao.gov/new.items/d08219.pdf
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Congress Should Improve Telework Definitions, GAO Says
To further promote telework programs, Congress should make telecommuting definitions more standardized
across agencies and find ways to more accurately measure programs to see if they are working, said
a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. In testimony before a House Oversight and Government
Reform subcommittee on Nov. 6, GAO officials suggested that lawmakers might want to instruct the Office
of Personnel Management and the Chief Human Capital Officers Council to develop definitions and measures
that would allow for a more meaningful assessment of the programs. Program management and oversight
could be improved by making more consistent definitions, such as those covering eligibility, the report
said. Some information, however, may take additional effort to collect, as for example, on the actual
usage of telework, the report said. “Telework is an investment in both an organization’s
people and the agency’s capacity to perform its mission,” the report said. “We continue
to believe that more fully implementing the practices related to managing for program results will
significantly contribute to improving the success of federal telework programs.” To see more
go to: www.gao.gov/new.items/d08261t.pdf
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