Monthly Journalism Award."$58 Million in Property Missing from NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. " Florida Today Florida Today is the major daily newspaper serving Melbourne, Brevard County and the Space Coast region of Florida. It was founded in 1966 by the Gannett corporation. February 16, 2004 A tale of the governmental gothic: NASA, Kelly reports, has simply misplaced mis·place tr.v. mis·placed, mis·plac·ing, mis·plac·es 1. a. To put into a wrong place: misplace punctuation in a sentence. b. $58 million worth of items in the last five years at its offices and stations around the country. The mislaid mis·lay tr.v. mis·laid , mis·lay·ing, mis·lays 1. To put in a place that is afterward forgotten: I have mislaid my hat. 2. stuff ranges from "easy-to-pilfer items such as portable computers to the curious disappearance of two 500-pound, ice-making machines." Other lost stuff included a $324 Blackberry that a NASA administrator lost at a hockey game, and an $850 camera an employee brought to Moscow for, a conference with Russian cosmonauts and forgot to bring back Though the cost to taxpayers is substantial, Kelly found, it was not out of line with the amount of stuff lost by other governmental agencies. And neither NASA nor other organs of the federal government regularly follow up on lost stuff. The frustrated, whistle-blowing whistle-blowing, exposure of fraud and abuse by an employee. The federal law that legitimated the concept of the whistle-blower, the False Claims Act (1863, revised 1986), was created to combat fraud by suppliers to the federal government during the Civil War. bureaucrats of this particular scandal are the property control officers. "The Langley culture is, 'Why lock thing up, it is a government facility?'" one property control officer at NASA's langley Research Center Langley Research Center (LaRC) Oldest of NASA's field centers, LaRC is located in Hampton, Virginia and directly borders Poquoson, Virginia and Langley Air Force Base. LaRC focuses primarily on aeronautical research, though the Lunar Lander was flight-tested at this facility and a wrote in a memo obtained by Kelly The Monthly Journalism Award is presented each month to one of more newspaper, magazine, radio or television stories (or series of stories) that demonstrate a commitment to the public interest. We are particularly interested in reporting that explains the successes and failures of government agencies at all levels and of other institutions such as the media, corporations, unions, and foundations that contribute to the existence or solution of public problems. Please send nominations (including a copy of the article or broadcast text) to The Washington Monthly Journalism Award, 733 15th Street, NW, Suite 520, Washington, DC 20005. Or email us at editors@washingtonmonthly.com |
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