Posted 23 January 2010 - 12:06 PM
I know many who read this will be outraged. Rightfully so. PLEASE TRY TO CONTAIN YOUR RAGE, KEEP YOUR RESPONSES PRODUCTIVE, HELPFUL AND PROFESSIONAL.
By all accounts, the ATF house is burning down with regards to leadership, our mission and our budget. What is ATF's response? Send an army of Hq and field division people to the shot show in Las Vegas. This raises so many many questions we cannot address them all here. These will be better addressed by the Department of Justice OIG.
1. How many ATF people actually have a vested interest in the shot show or the industries represented. Was it really necessary to send The DD Melson, Exec. Asst to the Director(for which we have none right now) Hoover, ADFO Chait, IOI Director, PGA AD Ford, a score of other HQ personnel, BOTH ASACs from San Francisco and the SAC? Did the head of OST really have a dog in this hunt? Would it not have been better judgment to send a few key integral ATF personnel and have them provide a briefing paper to the others or even Bureau wide? When by all accounts our Bureaus budget will be exhausted by July, can we waste these valuable resources? How many worthwhile mission and training travel requests will be denied because the executive staff wanted a trip to Vegas? Would so many have jumped on the shot show if it were held in Sioux Falls? Who was watching the shop while our key players were kicking back in Vegas?
2. Perhaps if someone would have stayed back in HQ to handle the Bureaus REAL business, the ASAC in Chicago would not be driving around in a tricked out Cadillac that she went back channels to procure with ATF vehicle funds. YES ITS HER G RIDE. Yes she procured it w/o the divisions knowledge through a friend in HQ. We are not sure exactly how many G rides could have been purchased or outfitted for real ATF business but its surely more than one loaded Cadillac. At a time when our EEO's are being denied explosive storage containers,our field Agents are driving vehicle w/o emergency equipment to include Police radios, lights and sirens, she is buying a Cadillac as her G ride for home to work purposes. What makes this most egregious, is that ADFO Chait and the executive staff know,and are unsure how to handle this. Simple, FIRE her, for outrageous misuse of government authority and waste of taxpayer and Bureau funds. Its called misappropriation. We have been advised from numerous sources that the car IS tricked out, so that's something. The procurement official must be removed as should anyone who reviewed this request and signed off on it. How dare her, NUFF SAID.
3. When it was brought to the Bureaus attention that Chipman had tried to grease the skids for former ASAC Stankoweicz(sp), the 5th floor was outraged and tanked the contract offer for someone who had so blatantly and publicly disgraced the Bureau. That did not prevent him from sliding into some other non Bureau contracted position. The problem is, that Chipman has been manipulating the Bureau sponsored contractor to pad the BQL with friends. The net effect is that the truly qualified people are not being considered for the positions. It has also been stated that Chipman has delivered HIS version of the BQLs for these contract positions, demanding his buddies be placed at the top of the list. Yep fraud. That simple. Yep the 5th floor knows.