Via Memeorandum comes this item. It seems that the Obama nominee for deputy director of the EPA has withdrawn. The EPA itself questioned the use of some $25 million in taxpayer money that was mismanaged by a foundation that the nominee, Jon Cannon, once acted as a board member for.
Jon Cannon, nominated to be the deputy director of the Environmental Protection Agency, pulled his name from consideration today, citing questions over a non-profit where he once sat on the board — and which EPA auditors accused in 2007 of mismanaging $25 million in taxpayer funds.
Cannon sat on the board of America’s Clean Water Foundation, which won some $25 million in federal contracts to identify environmental risks at beef, poultry and pork plants, and to help states and tribes comply with the Clean Water Act. EPA auditors questioned the accounting on almost all that money, charging that the group could not support some costs, included duplicate transactions on others, and did not complete several required audits. The IG report, which does not mention Cannon, also alludes to allegations of embezzlement in the foundation, which dissolved in 2006.
Cannon was not accused directly of doing anything wrong. But this does, yet again, call into question the team Obama vetting process.
There is a huge amount of malfeasance by America’s Clean Water Foundation detailed in the report by the EPA. So much so that one wonders why some of it was not investigated for criminal behavior. Just skimming the report calls into question why some “environmentalists” appear to be so good at grabbing taxpayer money for themselves, not their causes.
If you think this theft was bad, wait until the porkulus checks starts hitting these shady organizations. What we are seeing now is an outright smash-and-grab looting of the treasury. Everything else this administration is doing is diversionary.