Greenhouse in the doghouse

August 29, 2005

Over the last four years, Bunnatine Greenhouse has been pretty much the only career administration official willing to take a stand against dubious (and lucrative) contracts for Halliburton. She won’t be raising any more fuss on the issue — she’s been demoted.

Greenhouse, who has served as the top civilian contracting official for the Army Corps of Engineers, has been working diligently to expose the special treatment Halliburton received by the Bush administration. From last October:

The top civilian contracting official for the Army Corps of Engineers, charging that the Army granted the Halliburton Company large contracts for work in Iraq and the Balkans without following rules designed to ensure competition and fair prices to the government, has called for a high-level investigation of what she described as threats to the “integrity of the federal contracting program.”

The official, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, said that in at least one case she witnessed, Army officials inappropriately allowed representatives of Halliburton to sit in as they discussed the terms of a contract the company was set to receive.

When Greenhouse expressed concerns about Halliburton’s inappropriate role in negotiations and uncompetitive contracts, the Army Corps of Engineers began excluding her from major decisions to award money — despite her job as a top contracting official.

Over the weekend, Greenhouse, a 20-year veteran of the Army Corps of Engineers, was removed from her position altogether.

Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, commander of the Army Corps, told Bunnatine H. Greenhouse last month that she was being removed from the senior executive service, the top rank of civilian government employees, because of poor performance reviews. Greenhouse’s attorney, Michael D. Kohn, appealed the decision Friday in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, saying it broke an earlier commitment to suspend the demotion until a “sufficient record” was available to address her allegations.

The Army said last October that it would refer her complaints to the Defense Department’s inspector general. The failure to abide by the agreement and the circumstances of the removal “are the hallmark of illegal retaliation,” Kohn wrote to Rumsfeld. He said the review Strock cited to justify his action “was conducted by the very subjects” of Greenhouse’s allegations, including the general.

Keep in mind, Greenhouse has earned a reputation as a stickler for the rules and an unwavering champion of fiscal restraint. For years, she received only stellar performance ratings. Suddenly, however, after sounding the alarm on Halliburton’s no-bid deals, Greenhouse’s performance reviews became less complimentary.

When then-commander Gen. Joe N. Ballard tapped Greenhouse for the job in 1997, he said he wanted her — a black woman — to provide a jolt to the clubby, old-boys’ network that had long dominated the contracting process at the Corps.

She did, and now she’s paying for it.

I suppose the moral to this story is that if you’re going to be a whistleblower, be sure to continually cultivate powerful friends before committing yourself.

As an Army vet, it’s horrible to see this level of corruption among the highest echelons. Bad decisionmaking and bootlicking are bad enough, but venality was supposed to have gone out with the Civil War.

  • She obviously doesn’t support the ‘fail your way up’ business model of the Bush administration.

    It is nice to know there are people who will make a stand for what’s right, even when it has negative consequences.

  • If liberals protest the war the US military is being run, do the American thing: join and change from the inside. A large institution like that needs your voice.

  • Poster #3, that’s a fine sentiment, but of course neither George W. Bush nor Dick “Other Priorities” Cheney did it that way and they’ve managed to change the way the military is run. It’s now run with fewer volunteers, no-bid contracts to administration friends, not enough or not good-enough armor in combat zones, and the total freedom to outsource torture or just to do it yourself. All of this while fighting a war with no clear goal in a country we had zero reason to invade.

    Thank you but I would prefer to change that type of organization without joining its ranks.

  • … do the American thing: join and change from the inside.

    So the “American thing” is to become a mole? I realize that’s sort of what you’re doing here, Nate, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard that described as the “American thing” before. I thought the “American thing” involved “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” To which the GOP’s only quoteable response is “Cindy, Go home!”

  • It is so sad the way OUR COUNTRY is being run now. If you tell the truth you get fired. If you lie,cheat and steal you get promoted.
    Can you imagine the kickbacks people must be getting from Halliburton?
    On a seperate note and I know someone here will know the answer. What is happening to the oil profits from IRAQ? Where is the money going?

  • I find it interesting (read: ironic) that the bushistas go over the top patting themselves on the back when they appoint or nominate people who are minorities who have come from humble beginnings for important government jobs/judgeships, etc. I assume they do this to show how much they care about their public image with minorities (not how much they actually care about minorities).

    Here is Ms. Greenhouse, a person who fits that description. But because she is doing her job (“mandated by Congress to get the best quality at the cheapest price from the most qualified supplier” per Boston Globe article) which goes against the best interests of the bushistas, she gets demoted.

    Since Ms. Greenhouse’s duties are mandated by Congress I have already written to a number of Congresspeople demanding that they investigate this. I believe John Conyers has already started the ball rolling.

    Check out Bunny’s biography here:
    http://www.ag-east.org/2004/1204a.htm

    Boston Globe article here: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/08/07/army_whistleblower_draws_fire/

  • You’d think this would be a great story for the mainstream press to cover – Elvin Hayes’s sister crucified for fighting Halliburton/KBR. The things that are being done to decent Americans for the sake of indecent corporations makes by blood boil.
    No congressperson who refuses to back Ms. Greenhouse should EVER again be allowed to claim that they are on the side of decency.

  • This doesn’t surprise me for a number of reasons. One Halliburton and two this is the Army Corps of Engineers and anyone who has had any dealing with them know they are like the mob.

  • Ed Stephan-

    You sidestep the issue with the Sheehan bit. It is sobering that you think to promote a contrary view in the military is to be a mole. As a conservative, I would hope that there are liberals in the military, and that while the common ground should be committed to US strength, different views of how to secure and project US security should be welcomed.

    As for Cindy, well- if I set up camp outside Howard Dean’s house, I would hope people would get up the courage to tell me to “go home.” No one says she doesn’t have a right to do what she’s doing, but if you are gonna heckle someone don’t be suprised if his friends heckle you back.

  • I would hope that there are liberals in the military, and that while the common ground should be committed to US strength, different views of how to secure and project US security should be welcomed.

    And there are Nate. And they are being silenced due to the faith-based policies of their civilian leaders. What’s your issue again?

    I would hope people would get up the courage to tell me to “go home.” No one says she doesn’t have a right to do what she’s doing, but if you are gonna heckle someone don’t be suprised if his friends heckle you back.

    You equate firing a shot-gun with heckling? You equate running over symbolic grave sites of fallen soldiers with “the courage to tell me to go home”?

    astonishing. truly astonishing.

  • The “American thing,” Nate, is in the First Amendment:

    ” . . . or the right of the people peaceably to
    assemble, and to petition the Government for
    a redress of grievances.”

    By the way, Howard Dean is not in the government.

  • Edo- You are right, there obviously are liberals in the military, though it is generally an institution that sypathizes with modern conservatism. What I mean is that the way to truly change the military is from the inside, as opposed to relying solely on civilian leadership.

    As for the gun-firing and truck incident, again, you are dealing with angry Texans, what the hell do you expect? That’s how rednecks express their 1st amendment.

    hark- You are right too, the 1st Amendment is AN American thing. It’s also American to find common ground and engage in productive discourse. If you think the military is worthless and can’t be changed, then yes, make up a sign and protest. I personally think you’re better off pursuing other avenues to change.

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