Eilers letter: Federal agencies’ wrongdoing

Hopefully “drain the swamp” will include stopping wrongdoing in federal agencies.

One may first think of the Veterans Administration; however, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has apparently shown misconduct and wrongdoing in administering one of its programs, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). This program provides financial and technical assistance to agricultural producers with the objective to address various environmental quality issues as soil erosion, etc. Approved participants enter into a binding contract with the agency to follow construction and operation requirements. In Idaho, the agency has apparently violated this contract behind the back of participants for years. Moreover, the reporting of this wrongdoing by a participant has exposed some of the agency’s cover-up practices like altering and falsifying documents including the construction inspection report. NRCS also shifted blame of their violation by claiming that the participant is responsible for construction inspection — contrary to pre-construction agency claims.

The agency didn’t stop there. The NRCS head denied additional cost share to the participant who reported the wrongdoing even though the participant incurred considerable extra costs correcting a faulty NRCS irrigation design. He also suppressed evidence showing that the design was flawed.

Good luck Mr. President.

This story was originally published February 7, 2017 at 11:52 PM with the headline "Eilers letter: Federal agencies’ wrongdoing."