Of all the widespread NOAA offenses against the fishing industry, the most insidious may be the blatant misrepresentations of truth to fishermen and to the American people as a whole.
Perhaps the most blatant misrepresentation came last week.
That's when Maureen Wylie, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's chief financial officer, proudly released an audit of NOAA enforcement's notorious Asset Forfeiture Fund, with a press summary indicating that the Clifton Gunderson accounting firm had found "no abuse" of the fund over a five-year period ending in 2010.
Wylie's summary would shoot down the findings of poor oversight, wrongdoing and excessive tapping of the fund all found by Inspector General Todd Zinser and an earlier audit carried out for his office by KPMG, one of the nation's "big four" auditing firms. But while Wylie's press statement touts a finding of "no (fund) abuse," the Clifton Gunderson report makes no such reference. Indeed, the report notes that the company's task — carried out at a cost of $427,000 — was only to examine expenses of $3,000 of less, hardly a probe that would have turned up the purchase of the luxury boat and costs of NOAA agents' overseas travel well-documented by Zinser and KPMG.
Wylie's out-and-out lie is a blatant slap in the face to the Inspector General and to congressional leaders and others who should be able to trust a department CFO's audit statement. But once again, when it comes to NOAA, they can't — and that can cannot be tolerated.
Read the complete editorial from the Gloucester Times.