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Ethics scandal

The official DOE Inspector General report finally came out last week regarding the ethics scandal involving former Los Alamos National Laboratory deputy director Beth Sellers, who resigned March 7.
The Los Alamos Monitor reported last month that Sellers was the subject of a draft IG report that revealed Sellers and husband William failed to notify lab officials of a potential conflict of interest. William Sellers eventually was awarded a sole-source contract and according to the report, he billed the lab for work that was never performed.
In the final report, there is a response from acting NNSA administrator Bruce Held regarding the investigation.
Held listed the corrective actions the lab had made in regard to the situation.
Then he said, “findings identified in this report were considered in developing the
lab’s FY13 Performance Evaluation Report and we are evaluating whether any additional management action may be necessary given the results of the Inspsectors’ review.
“We take seriously our responsibility to ensure our federal and contractor staff adheres to the highest standards for ethical conduct and will ensure that lessons learned from this incident are shared across the nuclear security enterprise.”

Comments

Anonymous said…
Since the Los Alamos Monitor broke this story, it has now gone national and the latest report hints at more to come. Despite the efforts to hush it up, the story has legs.
Anonymous said…
As long as DOE has small shit like this to focus on, the big shit will continue to go unnoticed.
Anonymous said…
This story is going to stick around for some time. Perhaps not for two years, but not everything lasts as long as the period that McMillan covered up the scandal.
Anonymous said…
This story is going to stick around for some time.

April 8, 2014 at 4:06 PM

Only on this blog, which almost no one reads.
Anonymous said…
Sandia engages in fraud on a frequent and regular basis. There have been several posts on this illegal behavior ranging from questionable charges to taxpayers

http://llnlthetruestory.blogspot.com/2013/10/old-news-but-funny.html

to unethical contracts with politicians:

http://llnlthetruestory.blogspot.com/2013/11/ex-congresswoman-heather-wilson.html

to even a formal chastising from the federal government:

http://llnlthetruestory.blogspot.com/2013/07/sandia-chastised.html
Anonymous said…
Only on this blog, which almost no one reads.

April 8, 2014 at 8:39 PM

If almost no one reads your comments, then why do you bother to shill for the corporate party line?
Anonymous said…
Um, what?? WTF is a "corporate party line"? Corporations are parties? Hint: not all those who think this blog is worthless are pro-corporate management of the labs. This blog has accomplished exactly NOTHING since its inception. Unless you count giving sociopaths, survivalists, union patsies, management haters, and other clueless idiots their only connection to the world at large.

BTW, I only direct my comments to the person I am replying to. I don't give a damn who else reads them.
Anonymous said…

There is no party line. All you people who complain about corporations are just parasites that need to shut their traps and let the work that needs to be done get done. In a company the worker bees do not get to tell Bill Gates how to run his businesses. They do their job or they are terminated. The same should be true and hopefully will be true at the labs. I am soooo sick of all you people bitching about your jobs. You should be luckily that social misfits like scientists even have a chance to get jobs. Do you job, shut up, and stay out of sight so we do not have to see you.
Anonymous said…
You had me until you started with the anti-scientist crap. They are not the majority of people complaining about their jobs. You do yourself a major disservice when you insist on alienating people who actually agree with you. Wise up.
Anonymous said…
"Everyone knows it" but somehow you feel compelled to keep telling everyone. Curious.
Anonymous said…
This blog is making a good case for neutering based on intelligence testing!
Anonymous said…
April 12, 2014 at 3:23 PM said:
"This blog is making a good case for neutering based on intelligence testing"!

Everyone should have an opportunity to put their pecker on the anvil. You first.
Anonymous said…
You should be luckily that social misfits like scientists even have a chance to get jobs. Do you job, shut up, and stay out of sight so we do not have to see you.

Maybe some anger management classes might help. Must be tough to go through life and be so bitter.
Anonymous said…
"social misfits like scientists"

I'd prefer not to be in the society in which he "fits."

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