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Los Alamos officials leave amid fraud allegations
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The two top security officials at Los Alamos National Laboratory have agreed to leave the lab after allegations of fraud and retaliation against whistle-blowers on their watch. Security division director Stanley Busboom and his deputy, Gene Tucker, refused reassignment to lower-paying jobs at the lab but agreed to take a severance package and leave, said Bruce Darling, senior vice president at the University of California, which runs the lab. Former lab investigator Glenn Walp said Tuesday that Busboom and Tucker were among Los Alamos officials who hindered several investigations into the misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of lab funds. One employee tried to buy a customized $30,000 Ford Mustang on her lab charge card, another used her card for cash advances at casinos, and two others bought hunting and fishing equipment, tools, cameras, coolers, televisions and other items. None of the employees have been criminally charged. Walp and fellow investigator Steven Doran were fired by the lab when they pressed the investigations. The university rehired Doran to lead investigations and hired Walp as a consultant on its Los Alamos inquiry. Lab officials face a second hearing on Wednesday before the House Energy and Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee, which is investigating financial mismanagement at the lab. "I believe that the dysfunction at the laboratory has been so deep and has been going on for so many years that the only way to make a 180-degree turn here is by fairly wholesale removal of officials in administrative positions," said Rep. James Greenwood, R-Pennsylva, the subcommittee chairman. At the first hearing last month, Walp told House members that lab managers knew that fraud at the lab had been "greening the valley" around Los Alamos for years, but they looked the other way. Seventeen Los Alamos employees have been fired or removed from management positions by the university. Darling said the settlement with Busboom and Tucker was worth about a year's salary for each employee. Busboom had been making $190,000 a year and Tucker $165,000 annually, Darling told the subcommittee last month. Greenwood said the package seems generous to him, given that their behavior led to their removal from their positions. Busboom is expected to testify at Wednesday's hearing, as well as former deputy lab director Joe Salgado, who was fired January 31; former lab director John Browne, who has been demoted; the lab's chief counsel Frank Dickson, who still holds his job; and other lab officials. The financial mismanagement as well as problems in the late 1990s involving suspected espionage and misplaced computer hard drives have the Energy Department considering whether to allow bidding on the nearly $2 billion contract to run the lab, which the University of California has held without competition since 1943. The Energy Department is expected to make a decision on bidding before May. Darling also said Tuesday the lab is investigating possible disciplinary action against the employee who tried to buy the Mustang. It also is seeking reimbursement for cash advances to another employee, who used her Los Alamos charge card to get 11 cash advances at three casinos, Darling said. The employee had also bought gas, groceries and electronics with the card, he said. The case of another employee, alleged to have filed a bogus $1,800 travel voucher, has been sent to local prosecutors for review, Darling said. The employee repaid the money and resigned her job. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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