USDOT Inspector General's Office Comes Through
Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (OIG) made the following announcement on its website:
Audit Initiated of the Transportation Technology Innovation and Demonstration Program (TTID)
Date: January 29, 2008
The Office of Inspector General is undertaking an audit of the Transportation Technology Innovation and Demonstration Program (TTID). The objectives of this audit are to assess: (1) whether the TTID has met the statutory goals of building a traffic measurement infrastructure, providing commercial revenue generation initiatives, and aggregating and reporting surveillance data; and (2) whether the Federal Highway Administration has met the competitive procurement requirements of Part II of the program, which were intended to expand the number of firms providing surveillance services.
More information is included in a two-page letter available here.
This announcement is just a first step, but a very good one. The real test will be if this audit truly goes into the underpinnings of this monopoly/scam, and the role that both elected officials (e.g., former House Transportation Committee Chairmen Shuster and Young) and top USDOT officials (former Secretary Mineta and Deputy Secretary Jackson, and current Secretary Peters) clearly played in setting up and sustaining Traffic.com's monopoly.
I hope that the OIG will quickly partner with other Federal oversight agencies to find out the details of Mr. Mineta's windfall in Trimble Navigation options and his and Mr. Jackson's likely substantial hidden financial interest in Traffic.com. Key agency collaborations will include:
1. The SEC and IRS, to get to the bottom of Mr. Mineta's very likely excessive and unreported under-the-table profit in Trimble Navigation stock options.
2. The SEC, to find out who really owns/owned the equity that was hidden in offshore venture capital funds, very inexpensive stock warrants, and early preferred stock issues.
3. The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), which has the authority to look into the National Electrical Benefit Fund's (NEBF's) huge financial windfall from Traffic.com stock. (As a huge national pension fund, the NEBF would normally be expected to invest in blue chip securities rather than startup companies like Traffic.com) The NEBF was also issued almost 2 million penny stock warrants that wound up worth many millions. The EBSA needs to find out who specifically received the proceeds from those warrants.
This is a very comprehensive scandal that will ultimately require the OIG's collaboration with these other watchdog agencies to find all of the "financial smoking guns." The OIG's announcement today is a great first step, but now the real work begins. At the very least, the confidence I expressed earlier in the integrity of USDOT Inspector General Scovel and his staff has been fully validated for now. Let's hope that they continue to search -- and search hard -- for the truth underlying this big national scandal.
Jerry
Audit Initiated of the Transportation Technology Innovation and Demonstration Program (TTID)
Date: January 29, 2008
The Office of Inspector General is undertaking an audit of the Transportation Technology Innovation and Demonstration Program (TTID). The objectives of this audit are to assess: (1) whether the TTID has met the statutory goals of building a traffic measurement infrastructure, providing commercial revenue generation initiatives, and aggregating and reporting surveillance data; and (2) whether the Federal Highway Administration has met the competitive procurement requirements of Part II of the program, which were intended to expand the number of firms providing surveillance services.
More information is included in a two-page letter available here.
This announcement is just a first step, but a very good one. The real test will be if this audit truly goes into the underpinnings of this monopoly/scam, and the role that both elected officials (e.g., former House Transportation Committee Chairmen Shuster and Young) and top USDOT officials (former Secretary Mineta and Deputy Secretary Jackson, and current Secretary Peters) clearly played in setting up and sustaining Traffic.com's monopoly.
I hope that the OIG will quickly partner with other Federal oversight agencies to find out the details of Mr. Mineta's windfall in Trimble Navigation options and his and Mr. Jackson's likely substantial hidden financial interest in Traffic.com. Key agency collaborations will include:
1. The SEC and IRS, to get to the bottom of Mr. Mineta's very likely excessive and unreported under-the-table profit in Trimble Navigation stock options.
2. The SEC, to find out who really owns/owned the equity that was hidden in offshore venture capital funds, very inexpensive stock warrants, and early preferred stock issues.
3. The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), which has the authority to look into the National Electrical Benefit Fund's (NEBF's) huge financial windfall from Traffic.com stock. (As a huge national pension fund, the NEBF would normally be expected to invest in blue chip securities rather than startup companies like Traffic.com) The NEBF was also issued almost 2 million penny stock warrants that wound up worth many millions. The EBSA needs to find out who specifically received the proceeds from those warrants.
This is a very comprehensive scandal that will ultimately require the OIG's collaboration with these other watchdog agencies to find all of the "financial smoking guns." The OIG's announcement today is a great first step, but now the real work begins. At the very least, the confidence I expressed earlier in the integrity of USDOT Inspector General Scovel and his staff has been fully validated for now. Let's hope that they continue to search -- and search hard -- for the truth underlying this big national scandal.
Jerry
posted by Jerry Werner | 2:54 PM
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