Pack's initial nomination to the job by Trump languished for two years shortly after showing up at USAGM headquarters in early June 2020, he all but declared war on his new colleagues. Neither Pack nor two representatives of McGuireWoods replied to efforts requesting comment on the findings on Friday. State Department's Inspector General found the service the law firm provided "were duplicative of existing resources and involved the payment of billable hours far in excess of the salary of federal employees who can perform the same work." The inspector general also found "serious violations of federal law and regulation" in the payment of a subcontractor without any authorization. Agency for Global Media CEO, awarded the contract without any bidding process to the politically connected Richmond, Va., law firm McGuireWoods, which ultimately received more than $1.6 million in taxpayer money.įriday's report from the U.S. Michael Pack, the former CEO of VOA-parent U.S. PMC via Getty Imagesįormer President Donald Trump's pick to oversee the parent agency of the Voice of America paid a prestigious private law firm so extravagantly to investigate his own agency's senior executive officials that it constituted a "waste or gross waste of government resources," a federal watchdog concluded Friday. The officials under review by Pack, shown above at a party earlier this year with Steve Forbes, were later exonerated. The law firm charged the agency more than $1.6 million. Agency for Global Media conducted by a private law firm for former CEO Michael Pack was a "waste or gross waste" of taxpayer money. Under both the Biden and the Trump administrations, HHS has taken a back seat to the White House in management of the coronavirus pandemic even though its scientists, doctors, disease detectives and service providers carry out most of the day-to-day work.An inspector general said the the investigation of officials at U.S. Instead, it called for improving public health capabilities to put them on par with the nation's military defense response. Last year, the White House issued a plan for updating the pandemic response, but it was not couched in terms of fixing serious shortcomings.
The GAO said that of 115 recommendations it has made to HHS over the past 15 years on public health emergencies, 72 have not been fully put in place. Department spokesperson Sarah Lovenheim said in a statement that “we’re in a much stronger position than we were a year ago.” She added that “we look forward to reading GAO’s feedback on these important issues and sharing progress in this whole-of-government effort as we continue to work to ensure the American people are protected from future health-related emergencies.”
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