IG launches 2nd inquiry into T-bird contract

[unhappycamper]

Spectators watch as the Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team begin their aerial demonstration practice in Waikiki, Hawaii. A $50 million contract for a Thunderbird multimedia show is again under investigation by the Defense Department inspector general after two senators urged the IG to look into possible ethics violations on the part of senior Air Force officials.


IG launches 2nd inquiry into T-bird contract
By Erik Holmes - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 16, 2008 9:51:50 EDT

The Defense Department Inspector General has begun a new investigation into possible ethical violations and failures of leadership by senior Air Force officials in steering a $50 million Thunderbirds multimedia production contract to a company with close ties to the Air Force.

The investigation began in early May after Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the committee’s ranking member, wrote a letter April 21 asking the IG to follow up its initial, two-year investigation with an examination of the conduct of senior Air Force officials involved with the contract.

The IG report of its initial investigation, released April 17, includes testimony and correspondence of several current and former senior Air Force officials but does not rule whether their conduct was appropriate. The only senior officer the report faults is Maj. Gen. Stephen Goldfein, then director of the Air Warfare Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and now vice director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon.

“The report of investigation provided to the Armed Services Committee raises serious questions about the role played by other more senior current and former Air Force officials,” McCain and Levin’s letter says. “However, neither the report of investigation nor the memorandum reaches any findings or recommendations with regard to the conduct of these senior officials.”

The letter asks the IG to review the conduct of the senior officials, “not only as to criminal conduct, but also for possible ethics violations and failures of leadership.”


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/05/airforce_thunderbirds_investigation_051608w/