Readers may recall Matthew Rees's description several months ago in these pages of how Andrew Cuomo, secretary of housing and urban development, had been waging war on HUD's inspector general, Susan Gaffney. The General Accounting Office has now reviewed the lucrative legal contracts awarded by Cuomo's top aide, Howard Glaser, to investigate charges of racial discrimination lodged against Gaffney. The GAO's conclusions affirm, in a devastating way, that Cuomo has been using underhanded tactics to go after Gaffney.
The report found, for example, that HUD's decision to handpick two lawyers to investigate the discrimination charge, and award them contracts totaling $ 100,000 (the normal cost is about $ 3,000), represented "significant deviation" from the standard process of investigating discrimination complaints. And these actions, according to the GAO, "contributed to an appearance that HUD had manipulated the procurement process."
As for Glaser's role, which had him suspend an investigation already underway and then engineer the hiring of the new legal team (which included two former Clinton administration lawyers) -- the GAO characterizes it as "extraordinary." Indeed, the report quotes, by name, two HUD officials who handle discrimination complaints as saying Glaser's interference was "unprecedented."
Surely the report's most revealing finding is the section documenting the number of discrimination complaints filed by all HUD employees. It turns out that the rate of complaints filed against Gaffney's office is equal or below that for the rest of HUD. And since Gaffney took the inspector general job in 1993, the rate of complaints against that office has been lower than that of the Office of the Secretary, which Cuomo of course has occupied since early 1997. Mr. Pot, meet Mr. Kettle.