Kenneth J. Buck, Ph.D., the former Executive Director of the Office of Management Integration at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has agreed to pay $10,000 to resolve allegations that he violated conflict-of-interest rules in connection with a DHS contract following his departure from the agency in 2016. The settlement, which is based on his ability to pay, also resolves allegations that Buck violated the False Claims Act by submitting, or causing others to submit, false invoices to DHS to conceal his involvement with the contract following his departure from DHS.
Among other things, the Ethics Reform Act of 1989 imposes post-employment restrictions on certain federal officials, including a mandatory one-year “cooling off period” during which former officials are prohibited from communicating directly with their former agency on behalf of another party with the intent to influence agency action. The settlement announced today resolves allegations that Buck violated this rule by communicating directly with a now-former DHS official with the intent to influence agency action regarding a DHS contract with Intelligent Fiscal Optimal Solutions LLC (iFOS), under which Buck was engaged as a subcontractor. According to the government’s allegations, Buck informed a now-former DHS official that he planned to leave DHS and accept an engagement with iFOS, and less than one week later that other DHS official selected iFOS for a no-bid contract. The government alleged that,...
A front-page article with the byline of veteran New York Times opinion writer Nicholas Kristof is the latest poisonous example of what I call the NGO “halo effect.” Headlined “The Silence That Mee...