State Dept: Tomlinson Misused Office

BROADCAST CHIEF MISUSED OFFICE, INQUIRY REPORTS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stephen Labaton]
State Department investigators have found that Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the head of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the agency overseeing most government broadcasts to foreign countries, has used his office to run a "horse racing operation" and that he improperly put a friend on the payroll. Tomlinson’s position at the broadcasting board makes him one of the administration’s top officials overseeing public diplomacy and puts him in charge of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. The State Department report said that Tomlinson had repeatedly used government employees to perform personal errands and that he billed the government for more days of work than the rules permit. The summary of the report, prepared by the State Department inspector general, said the United States attorney’s office here had been given the report and decided not to conduct a criminal inquiry. The summary said the Justice Department was pursuing a civil inquiry focusing on the contract for Mr. Tomlinson’s friend. Through his lawyer, Tomlinson issued a statement denying that he had done anything improper. The office of the State Department inspector general presented the findings from its yearlong inquiry last week to the White House and on Monday to some members of Congress. Tomlinson's renomination to a new term as chairman of the State Department office that oversees foreign broadcasts, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, is pending before the Senate. Tomlinson’s ouster in November from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was prompted by a separate investigation by that inspector general at the corporation. That inquiry found evidence that Mr. Tomlinson had violated rules as he sought more conservative programs and that he had improperly intervened to help the staff of the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal win a $4.1 million contract, one of the corporation’s largest programming contracts, to finance a weekly public television program.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/30/washington/30broadcast.html?ref=todays...
(requires registration)

* Broadcasting Board Chairman Misused Funds, U.S. Probe Says
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115690748592649246.html?mod=todays_us_ma...

* Tomlinson Cited For Abuses at Broadcast Board
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/29/AR200608...

* Foreign Broadcasts' Chief Accused of Impropriety
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-cpb30aug30,1,206...

* Tomlinson Vigorously Defends BBG Actions
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6366851.html?display=Breaking...