Saturday, May 25, 2013

Jeanette Hanna, BIA OFFICIAL Spends $178K in two years. Didn't Follow RULES on expenses.

You think our government, when facing sequester for overspending, would have check EXPENSES as the very first way to save money.   Now, we have a BIA official spending nearly $200K of our money! Money that could be used for Indian Health Care maybe?   Who's running things at INTERIOR?  Looks like the Obama Administration needs to be more diligent with our money.

When last we checked in with Jeanette Hanna, a polarizing official at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, she was making waves with an unspecified “personnel matter” and a controversial posting in Washington.

Now we’ve seen an inspector general report revealing that her 775-day detail to Washington, which ended in February 2012, cost taxpayers nearly $178,000 — and oh, what a trip it was.

According to the damning IG findings, Hanna (who is still employed by the Interior Department) spent more than $30,000 to rent an SUV, when rules say she should have gotten a cheaper compact car, and frittered away more than $33,000 renting a hotel room that sat empty while she traveled back to her home in Oklahoma for a whopping 283 days of her detail.

She also tried to get reimbursement for a full per-diem payment during the time she spent in Washington (even though rules say employees should only get 55 percent of the per diem during such extended trips)

When the Loop contacted the Interior Department, which includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs, for a comment, a spokeswoman said the report “speaks for itself.”

Money aside, the IG report also paints Hanna as a bit of a nightmare boss. According to a preliminary report into complaints, while a regional director in Oklahoma, Hanna installed 40 extra security cameras for her office “with live feeds, to monitor employees.” Some underlings “were physically shaking” during interviews about her, according to an investigator, “and feared retribution,” the report notes.


Read more about Jeanette Hanna and BIA overspending HERE

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