Corruption Scandal Rocks Los Alamos Lab

An anonymous reader writes "In the wake of recent science fraud stories involving Bell Labs and Berkeley National Labs, a new scandal is now brewing at Los Alamos National Lab. Today (Jan 3, 2003), the New York Times is reporting that both the Director and Principal Deputy Director of Los Alamos have submitted their resignations under duress. A more detailed and earlier CBS News report here . POGO has an archive of related documents here. I recommend you visit POGO.org (Project On Government Oversight), a wonderful non-profit organization dedicated to fighting fraud and waste in the US government."

Comments

Article Link

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is the google news link to the article .

Or read all the coverage on google news here

wrong kind of fraud

[josephgrossberg]

The people at Los Alamos didn't do the "fudging our data" stuff, they did the Dennis Kozlowski type.

This ranges from $3 million in "lost" equipment and improper credit card use, under Browne and Salgado's watch.

Re:wrong kind of fraud

[Anonymous Coward]

There is a sociological link between the Los Alamos story and the Bell Labs/Schon story. The outgoing Los Alamos Director (John C. Browne) is a Ph. D. physicist and it all happened during his watch. So it appears that dishonesty is endemic in the American Scientific Community and this community is in denial about this. Here is Browne's bio, taken from the Los Alamos website:

John C. Browne Director Los Alamos National Laboratory

John C. Browne became Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, on November 3, 1997. Dr. Browne came to the Laboratory in 1979 as a group leader in the Physics Division. During his now 19 years at the
Laboratory, he has held several positions. These include Physics Division Leader, Associate Laboratory Director for Computational and Information Sciences, Associate Laboratory Director for Defense Research and Applications,
Associate Laboratory Director for Research, and Associate Laboratory Director for Experimental Physics. From 1993 to 1997, he was Program Director for Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) and Energy Research programs, responsible for overseeing LANSCE research and operations and for coordinating the DOE Office of Energy Research programs, Dr, Browne received his B.S. in Physics in 1965 from Drexel University and his Ph.D. in Physics from Duke University. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also a Fellow in the American Physical Society. Dr. Browne was awarded the Board of Trustees Scholarship by Drexel University from 1960-1962; the Mathematics Award from Drexel University in 1962; and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Fellowship from Duke University from 1965-1968. Dr. Browne was elected to membership in the following honor societies: Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi, and Sigma Pi Sigma. He was elected as Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1987 and listed in American Men and Women of Science, Who's Who in America, and Who's Who in the West.

Re:wrong kind of fraud

[Anonymous Coward]

You, sir, in addition to being a troll, are also a dumbfuck.

Nuke secrets?

[joelt49]

I hope these directors don't become so disgruntled that they take our nuke secrets elsewhere. Next thing you know, the capital of my state (Cheyenne, Wyoming) will be wiped off the map -- F.E. Warren Air Force Base is located there, and it's the first base in the world to house ICBM's.

Re:Nuke secrets?

[Anonymous Coward]

dont forget the stargate in cheyenne mountain

simply pathetic Bush grandstanding for mini-nukes

[js7a]

The Bush Administration (Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham) is willing to go to great lengths to get the Regents of the University of California out of the business of running nuke factories.

The kinds of abuses described in the allegations happen all the time, especially in the military, but you don't see any Joint Chiefs of Staff "mutually agreeing" on their resignations for it.

The real problem, from the Bush point of view, is the overwhelming propensity of Californian voters to insist on following the law instead of developing new "bunker buster" mini-nukes. Bush wants these new weapons, now more than ever, and to get them he needs a National Labs administration willing to look the other way.

PLEASE DO SOMTHING ABOUT THIS!

[js7a]

Click here to send a letter to your Senators and congressional Representative about this issue.

Re:simply pathetic Bush grandstanding for mini-nuk

[DarthGonzo]

Where did this come from? Mini-nukes? Mini-nukes don't seem to be the issue. My impression attitude of the lab to the bunker-buster program was that it was quite positive because it was such a large project that fits into the mission of the lab. The lab wanted the project.

The article in the NY Times indicates that it was the response of the laboratory leadership to the investigations into the problems with the property, credit card and purchase order accounting that caused Brown and the deputy director to resign. The article read in such a way as to indicate that there was a pretty feeble attempt at a coverup, which was exposed.

There are significant problems with property accounting at Los Alamos. During my time at Los Alamos as a postdoctoral research associate, we had 1 person responsible for accounting for the property in our division. He couldn't keep up with everything going on and there was a lot of hostility to him doing his job. I suspect other divisions were similar.

The credit card system gets so much abuse because it is used so damn much. You can't get anything in a reasonable amount of time by going through the official channels of purchase orders through the appropriate group. If you need something in a timely manner, you find a secretary with a credit card. I suspect that a lot of the problems stem from the fact that they are buying so much stuff that they lose track of what's going on. Slipping in a bogus purchase gets easy when there's so much activity. If you can get away with it once, go back for seconds.

Don't even get me started on the theft of equipment. Our group lost tools by the ton as well as larger ticket items, like air compressors. The air compressor was even chained down. This kind of theft goes on so often it is sickening.

It is unlikely that the resignations are going to alter things significantly, but the odds of improving the situation are better than if things had been left as they were. Personally, I'm hopeful that the lab can straighten some of this out.

Read the whole article

[0x0d0a]

If you get down to where it's conveniently stuffed waaay at the bottom (wow, seems the NYT likes being sensationalist as well), it says that all but $141,000 have been resolved after the investigation.

Now, that's certainly not pocket change, and it could be abuse of funds, but it sure as hell isn't in the millions of dollars range. Unless the people in charge were the ones actually doing the charging, I don't see why they'd get canned for this. This is not the amount of funds that you'd have to be willfully ignoring to have slip through the cracks to dishonest workers at the lab.

At least from what I've read so far, this smells a *lot* more like internal politicking. Someone screwed someone over or someone wanted to give someone a favor, or someone was blocking someone else's ideas.

I distinctly remember Bush hammering a number of DoE affiliants and top people about a year ago. Given the fact that Bush has tons of Big Energy ties, it's a lot more likely that he's just repaying favors. Perhaps someone would have lost a lot of money if nuclear power become more economic, or perhaps someone wanted to discover something privately and get the patents on it. [shrug] Who knows?

Re:Read the whole article

[goombah99]

Yup, you got it right. it's partly a power-play to try to take the University of California Management contract and sell it to the highest (political) bidder. UC has a strong basic science interest at the lab which could vanish into micromanagement it were managed by people with other agendas.

basically the lab spends billions of dollars each year, its been in operation for over 50 years. And inventory is held on the books at purchase price, not at depreciated value. (a ten year old $8000 computer is held on the books at 8000$ not 0$ its true worth)

to have all of its inventory accounted for down to 141,000 dollars is frankly a miracle unlikely to be replaicated in any other institution of the same size (47 square miles).

Re:simply pathetic Bush grandstanding for mini-nuk

[js7a]

[The] attitude of the lab to the bunker-buster program was that it was quite positive because it was such a large project that fits into the mission of the lab. The lab wanted the project.

No argument there; from the Physicians for Social Responsibility Activist Update:

former Congresswoman Elisabeth Furse (D-OR) sponsored legislation banning development of nuclear weapons with an explosive yield of less than 5 kilotons in 1993....

Stephen Younger, a senior staffer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has been arguing publicly that a more flexible, usable nuclear arsenal will be needed to meet threats including terrorism with weapons of mass destruction in the coming century.

See, the problem is, mini-nukes are illegal. The Regents of the University of California tend to appoint people to their labs who are accountable to the law. Since Spencer Abraham couldn't get Browne and Salgado to look the other way and go ahead on the project under wraps, he called them to the carpet on $141,000 worth of barbeque grills. That 's nothing! "As of March 31, 2002, approximately 8,000 Air Force cardholders had over $5 million in delinquent debt" on the travel cards, the GAO said.

Let's see...

[derubergeek]

...two cops are hired to look into misuse of funds and property, find ~$3 million worth, are told not to forward their information to the FBI, then - when the information gets out - are fired. CBS gets wind of this, the pressure builds, and finally those responsible for the firings resign.

Yup. Sounds like a classic Bush and BIGENERGY maneuver to me.

MOD PARENT UP

[goombah99]

AMEN, Parent is speaking the real truth. (except Steve Younger was more interested in reaserch than in production of nukes).

the hidden agenda behind this resignation. Too many people want to put their knives into the University of california contract. Local NM people want the admininstration for their own locally corrupt agenda, the anti-nuke people want to just kill the lab by any means, the POGO people just want publicity so they mis-report the true facts, and the Bush Admin wants to turn los alamos from a research facility in to a production facility replacing UC with a compiant, republican party donating, contractor.

The inventory control system is out of date and a new bussiness information system is about to be implemented. But inventory losses are NOT out of control as suggested by the press reports. And the fact that people are getting nailed for credit card fraud ought to tell you that PEOPLE ARE GETTING NAILED, not getting away with it.

Re-read the whole article

[arb]

If you get down to where it's conveniently stuffed waaay at the bottom (wow, seems the NYT likes being sensationalist as well), it says that all but $141,000 have been resolved after the investigation.

If you re-read the article, you will find that PwC (the external auditors) 'found $3.7 million of unreconciled purchases.' The laboratory claims that all but $121,000 worth of purchases have been reconciled. Until an external auditor verifies these claims, I'd be more willing to believe the larger figure. To me it sounds like the laboratory are trying to cover up the rorting that has been going on.

Re:simply pathetic Bush grandstanding for mini-nuk

[Anonymous Coward]

James said here :

See, the problem is, mini-nukes are illegal. The Regents of the University of California tend to appoint people to their labs who are accountable to the law. Since Spencer Abraham couldn't get Browne and Salgado to look the other way and go ahead on the project under wraps, he called them to the carpet on $141,000 worth of barbeque grills. That 's nothing! "As of March 31, 2002, approximately 8,000 Air Force cardholders had over $5 million in delinquent debt" on the travel cards, the GAO said. [osd.mil]

So your argument is, scientists can be dishonest because the other guys in Defense are even more dishonest. Hmm...

arb (452787) said here:

If you re-read the article, you will find that PwC (the external auditors) 'found $3.7 million of unreconciled purchases.' The laboratory claims that all but $121,000 worth of purchases have been reconciled. Until an external auditor verifies these claims, I'd be more willing to believe the larger figure. To me it sounds like the laboratory are trying to cover up the rorting that has been going on.

I think arb is much more fair in his judgement about what James calls "$141,000 worth of barbeque grills." . It might very well be that the Bush administration chose to act at this particular time because of an ulterior motive of mini-nukes, although there is no good proof of that. But Browne and Salgado, and the scientific community that they represent, made themselves vulnerable by being so amoral in executing their job. They had a great opportunity to make the lab a shinning example of efficient, prolific, non-defense research, and they threw away that chance. If in the future Los Alamos's non-defense programs are shrunk drastically, it will be a sad but not totally undeserved fate. John Browne, the outgoing Director, is a a former Physics Division Leader at Los Alamos, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He has been working at Los Alamos since 1979. Is it possible that he did not know that a culture of theft pervaded Los Alamos? A secretary buying a 30,000 dollar Mustang on a government credit card, flagged by the bank, not the lab, mind you.