h/t to WUWT reader Keith. Excerpts from:
NASA scientist pleads guilty to directing contracts to wife’s firm
By Robert Brodsky rbrodsky@govexec.com September 30, 2009
An award-winning NASA scientist has admitted to directing thousands of dollars in sole-source agency contracts to his wife’s firm and failing to report the income on a financial disclosure form.
Mark Schoeberl, 60, of Silver Spring, Md., a senior manager and scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, pleaded guilty on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., to one count of felony conflict of interest.
Schoeberl, who has worked at NASA since the early 1980s, was charged last week after authorities completed an investigation run out of NASA inspector general’s office.
“When government officials direct business to themselves or their family members, other people are deprived of a fair chance to compete,” said U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein. “It is illegal for any federal employee to make an official decision that directly affects their financial interest, unless they disclose that conflict of interest and get approval from the government.”
…
At the time, Schoeberl was the chief scientist of Goddard’s earth sciences division — which conducts climate research — and the project scientist for the Aura project, a NASA mission to study the Earth’s ozone layer, air quality and climate.
…
Between fiscal 2006 and fiscal 2008, Animated Earth was awarded more than $190,000 in NASA contracts, all without competition, according to data on USASpending.gov, a federal Web site that aggregates contract spending data.
Schoeberl’s 2007 financial disclosure form did not include the more than $50,000 in contracts his wife’s firm earned that year.
Full story here.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is the agency that control the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) which is an adjunct of Columbia University in NYC.
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Here’s what all that government money bought us, impressive huh? Especially when you compare it to work already being seen at NASA’s Earth Observatory and Visible Earth.
The page of http://www.animated-earth.com is shown below. Note that the links to graphics don’t work on the original main web page, so please don’t complain to WUWT.
Welcome to Animated Earth
Animated Earth develops and distributes Earth Today, an exhibit displaying near-real-time Earth Science data sets displayed on a rotating globe.
Animated Earth also develops short movies that explain earth science processes and complement Earth Today. Movies are designed for viewing on plasma screens, over the web, or on museum kiosks.
The Animated Earth website is presently under construction. New features and additional information will be added over the next several months.
Part of an exhibit at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum and Maryland Science Center, 74 MB
Earth Observation Movies
Earth Observation Movies Page Link
(TRMM)
A series of animations about Measuring Rainfall and the Water & Energy Cycles
contact: barbara@animated-earth.com
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This is an individual human failing, most likely, or folie a deux. I draw no conclusions about NASA Goddard from this. I do about other things, though; let me count the ways.
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REPLY: The only conclusion I draw is that there is too much uncontrolled money being poured into climate research. With such temptations at hand, such incidents will only increase. See this:
http://joannenova.com.au/2009/07/massive-climate-funding-exposed/
– Anthony
Why, how can Gore be promoting global warming like mad when he has money interests in the deal, and be legal , and a poor federal employ directing funds to his wife’s firm illegal. Maybe it is the scale, Gore gathers millions and expects many more whereas a federal employ can only reach a few thousands.
Government money corrupts everything it touches, reducing normal honest people to low grade fraudsters. You can see this everywhere, and science is particularly susceptible due to the dominance of Government in science funding
Cognitive dissonance seems to be the limiting factor in the American psyche, with a massive amount of Hegelian dialectic thrown in for good measure. Break down these barriers and you win.
One of the important factors in evaluating proposals is consideration of the qualifications of the personnel of competing firms to do the work. This nepotism sort of thing simply takes that “little item” out of consideration. This is far more than “fairness” in contract award, but has significant other negative consequences.
I have been in the position (government) of evaluating a good many proposals for contract engineering work, and being the final decision maker as to who got the engineering contract. I know whereof I speak.
Here’s what all that government money bought us, impressive huh?
Wow. That web site is a joke. That’s all you get after 3 years and $190,000? That proves it was all a scam. Schoeberl got what he deserved. Does anyone know if they’re still going to give him his fat pension?
Scientist to politician; “you scratch my back and I scratch yours”
And so the AGW – the great global warming scam/ swindle began.
So much greater the benefit accrued when one can keep it in the family.
I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg…
“In May, Schoeberl admitted to preparing a document that justified Animated Earth as the only contractor eligible to bid on a new award for maintenance on kiosks that the company had previously installed on NASA grounds.
The following month, Schoeberl provided another sole-source justification directing NASA contracting and financial personnel to award a $60,000 software procurement to his wife’s company. He also asked colleagues about how he could direct Recovery Act funds to Animated Earth, according to the plea agreement.
In addition, Schoeberl admitted to instructing his wife on how to invoice NASA for work performed by her company.
Between fiscal 2006 and fiscal 2008, Animated Earth was awarded more than $190,000 in NASA contracts, all without competition, according to data on USASpending.gov, a federal Web site that aggregates contract spending data.
Schoeberl’s 2007 financial disclosure form did not include the more than $50,000 in contracts his wife’s firm earned that year.”
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Notice how he tried to direct “Recovery Act” funds to his wife’s company. Those are your tax dollars!! And this at a time that the rest of the private sector work force is enduring 10% unemployment…
Anthony,
Normally I agree with almost everything written on here. But I have to part company over this.
I work for the government – specifically in public procurement. I am constantly horrified by how many government employees don’t follow the rules for spending money – in all sorts of areas of public service. I can categorically state that it’s not limited to climate scientists, nor does not it say anything about how much funding is available for climate science.
I think it says more about officers not knowing (or perhaps ignoring) the procurement regulations. There could even be a “lack of scrutiny / accountability” angle to this story. Perhaps it also says something about the enormous amounts of red tape involved in public spending. The scope of the rules are mind-boggling – trust me. But I hardly think it warrants much more attention.
If NASA were a private company, no one would bat an eyelid over this. People in the commercial world give friends and families all sorts of deals. No one cares. Sure this is different. It’s public money. And so there are certain rules to follow – rules which are based around competition, transparency, fairness, etc).
But I hardly expected this otherwise-excellent blog to get worked up over competition, transparency and fairness.
Agree with the too much uncontrolled money being poured into climate research. Desperation does that.
I saw the SPPI study that said $79 billion had been dumped in the AGW pit over the last 20 or so years.
And all they got for it is one fake chart …
Sorry – a typo in my above comment!
I work for the government – specifically in public procurement. I am constantly horrified by how many government employees don’t follow the rules for spending money – in all sorts of areas of public service. I can categorically state that it’s not limited to climate scientists, nor does it say anything about how much funding is available for climate science.
The same requirements apply to some of the big time offenders, such as Senators Feinstein and Reid, and Congress persons Pelosi, Murtha, Mollahan. Pelosi, Feinstein and Reid family members, and themselves since both CA and NV are community property law states, were the beneficiaries of specific earmarks upon which they voted without disclosures of the conflicts of interest.
However, there may be an exemption for members of Congress that makes the offenses even more egregious.
$3.4 billion for carbon capture and storage. Who is the master and who is the slave?
“September 30, 2009
ROCKEFELLER: ANY SENATE CLIMATE LEGISLATION SHOULD SOLIDIFY WEST VIRGINIA AND COAL’S FUTURE
Washington, D.C. – Senator Jay Rockefeller released the following statement regarding climate legislation introduced today by Senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry:
“The climate legislation proposed today by Senators Boxer and Kerry is a disappointing step in the wrong direction and I am against it.
“Requiring 20 percent emission reductions by 2020 is unrealistic and harmful – it is simply not enough time to deploy the carbon capture and storage (CCS) and energy efficiency technologies we need. Period.
“Our nation cannot survive without energy from coal and any viable climate policy must solidify our future by focusing on technology to make coal cleaner faster.
“I will continue studying the bill and all of its implications for our state and the coal industry. This is by no means the defining word on climate legislation in the Senate.
“I remain adamant in my conviction not to support any bill that might threaten the economy, workers or families across West Virginia.
“We should take the time to approach these issues with absolute care and diligence – they require nothing less.”
Background:
At least six Senate committees, including the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which Rockefeller chairs, have jurisdiction over climate legislation and could offer their own versions – which would ultimately have to be incorporated into one bill before being considered on the Senate floor.
Rockefeller has consistently pushed to make CCS technologies part of the solution in making the United States more energy independent. He fought to make sure funding for CCS technologies was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – and as a result, $3.4 billion was secured for low carbon coal and carbon sequestration projects.
As discussions surrounding climate legislation move forward in the Senate, Rockefeller is fighting for even stronger investments in the technologies needed to secure a confident future for West Virginia coal.
http://rockefeller.senate.gov/press/record.cfm?id=318456
You just don’t get it. The coming climate catastrophe requires all good citizens to do their part to save the planet!!
A few hundred thousand $$$ here or there is NOTHING compared to the firey death that awaits us all if we do not act now. Managers at NASA are ONLY doing what is best for the planet. Hiring your wife to get the message out is merely ONE of the techniques available for responsible scientists to raise the awareness of the threat we face. Fixing data so it looks like a “Hockey stick” would be called “fraud” in any other science but not here, oh no, this is yet another example of absolutely NECESSARY tactics to SAVE OUR PLANET! What could be more important? Even NASA’s highest profile scientist, James Hanson, publically recommends to commit civil disobediance in order to raise awareness.
You will eventually forgive these folks for doing what may at a glance seem wrong but will become patently obvious as absolutely necessary, in thirty years time, for the sake of all of us and our children.
If only you at WUWT understood how your attitudes are endangering the lives of everyone on this entire planet. If we AGW’ers get half the chance we will lock all of you up – the whole lot of you deniers (to save our children)!
/sarc off
This is just ordinary corruption that goes with power and loose money. Not related to AGW or the scientific method. When the R’s had power they were corrupt, now the D’s have power and they’re corrupt. The corruption goes with power, not philosophy.
And Anthony you don’t need to worry so much about uncontrolled money for AGW research; the spendulus bill only included two or three billion dollars for climate research. So what if that’s above the normal billions of funding. So far you and Steve are out funded by about 1000 to one and still winning.
Dang, for $50,000 a year I could launch daily, weekly and monthly CEIT and CEUVI movies so kiddies could watch the Sun develop as if humans could see in the ultraviolet, and in color.
Animated GIF movies of the Sunspot development and faculae growth.
Drat.
All I got was a Tee Shirt for making an HST Snap proposal for a lousy wandering black hole evidence study.
Arghhh…. I have the luck of the Irish.
Gee Jeremy, what are you going to do when the earth continues to cool and you cannot afford heat? Freeze with your children?
I agree with those who are saying that this is a personal matter concerning the person convicted – there are always a couple of bad apples. My experience is that graft and corruption seem to be pretty equally divided among Democrats and Republicans – – probably Independents, too – – same goes for Warmers and Skeptics.
I would say the same thing about faulty zippers, too.
CPA’s do a fine job of catching these conflict of interest or inside deal contracts in the private sector. They then become personnel matters. Mr Watts posted the abuse of desktops to watch porn. Yes government workers in some ways have more employment security and exploit the same. It is a fact that vendors sell less fraud and monitoring software to government agencies.
I resent the Feds telling me i use too much water and don’t pay enough for energy and they let this happen.
I think that called a supplemental retirement fund.
So like maybe there’s a job opening at GISS ?
And this is relevant to the AGW “debate” how? Oh, it is not. Yet you keep on trying to discredit one and all climate scientists as being corrupt. Come on, be reasonable, climate scientists are no worse than anyone else in this regard, there will always be a few bad apples.
REPLY: It’s about the huge amount of money being poured into climate science. For example, why replicate services for cost with outside contractors when NASA is fully capable of doing these simple animations themselves? – A
Don’t confuse NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre near Washington DC with NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Sciences in NYC, where Jim Hansen works. GSFC is a great place, and Aurora is a good mission. It’s sad, nothing more nothing less, that its project scientist is in trouble.
REPLY: Hello Nigel, thanks for dropping by. I purposely made that distinction in the article with a note. The real issue is the amount of money being poured into climate research which lends itself to corruption like this. Why did NASA need to duplicate animation services they can do themselves? – Anthony
The $7 Billion dollars a year spent in the US on Climate Research would buy 28 billion tons of Carbon Credits at today’s market rates.
The total world CO2 emission output is only 32 billion tons this year, so instead of the research funding, we could actually Carbon Credit our way to Zero emissions.
Realistically, it still costs $15 to $50 per ton to get rid of CO2 but $7 billion would still get rid of 140 to 466 Megatons.
That is much more efficient use of taxpayer’s money in terms of actually having an impact on climate change …
On second thought, it looks like the $7 billion should just be cut instead.
Oh, so no job opening at GISS, then. Back to Wal-mart.
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Maurice Garoutte (13:42:39) : above is correct. It isn’t the corruption of little contracts going to relatives, it’s the insane total tens of thousands of billions of dollars this President/Congress is spending. We’ve given our credit card and checkbook to children.
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We once raised a fuss about $800 toilet seats. At least that money went for something useful.
THE Nigel Calder ?
Reply: Yes ~ ctm