Your Executive Branch at Work

USDA Shuts Down Congressional Audit

By BEN EVANS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Agriculture Department abruptly ordered congressional auditors to leave its Washington offices this week and told employees not to cooperate with them.

"You are hereby instructed not to meet with any member of the (Government Accountability Office) today, or until this matter is resolved," Michael Watts, head of the department's office of adjudication, wrote to employees Wednesday in an e-mail obtained by The Associated Press.

The auditors were seeking information for an ongoing review of Agriculture's civil rights office, including whether the department had provided false information about the office's progress in handling discrimination complaints.

J. Michael Kelly, Agriculture's deputy general counsel, said the GAO investigators called the department Wednesday morning to say they were on their way over and wanted to speak with certain employees.

He said the auditors refused to let department attorneys sit in on the meetings. After initially allowing interviews to proceed, department officials stopped them and told the investigators to leave the building, Kelly said.

(More here.)