Federal investigators are in the midst of a criminal probe into potential criminal activity among employees at a government-run utility, according to a letter obtained by lawmakers.
The Energy Department inspector general’s office told Arizona Republican Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake their audit of the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) has been put on hold until they have taken corrective actions to stop more fraudulent activity from happening.
Acting IG Rickey Hass told lawmakers there’s an ongoing criminal investigation into WAPA’s Desert Southwest (DSW) branch that’s steeped in potential fraudulent credit card purchases. Hass said his office was “supporting efforts to hold individuals accountable for their criminal activity.”
In the meantime, Hass’ office is conducting an audit of DSW’s construction contracts. Sources familiar with the investigation into WAPA, told The Daily Caller News Foundation that workers used government credit cards for personal purchases, including pimping-out government-owned trucks.
TheDCNF obtained internal WAPA audits detailing more than $6.8 million in potentially fraudulent purchases with government credit cards. DSW alone had more than $220,000 spent on upgrades to General Services Administration vehicles without permission, including “lift kits, off road shocks, custom wheels and tires, custom bumpers, fog lights, winches, new radios, GPS units, and tool boxes.”
“They were just charging stuff back to customers,” a source familiar with the internal audits told TheDCNF. “The receipts would say things like ‘linemen tools.’ Nobody was looking at it and nobody cared.”
“Gun cases, scopes. These guys had no business buying any of that stuff,” the source said.
“They were buying stuff and filling up the back end of Ford expeditions with items,” a source who witnessed WAPA employees flaunting their purchases told TheDCNF. “Instead of having a cooler in their truck, they had these $800 refrigerators.”
WAPA employees “thought they were saving money by not buying ice,” the source said, barely able to contain his laughter.
WAPA is a power marketing agency within the Energy Department that’s responsible for transmitting electricity across 15 states. The utility operates 17,000 miles of transmission lines that carry power from 56 government-owned hydroelectric dams and a coal plant in the Navajo Nation. The utility is headquartered in Loveland, Colo.
WAPA came under fire recently from federal regulators for not doing enough to protect its transmission lines and substations from physical attacks.
Flake and McCain have been railing on the DOE for months to take potential criminal activity at WAPA more seriously. The lawmakers sent two letters in August to the DOE IG asking for updates on the investigation, which has been going on for about a year.
“We are deeply troubled by the fact that DSW has not fully implemented changes to its procurement practices and that its construction contracts have also come into question,” the lawmakers wrote to DOE Thursday.
“We look forward to seeing the results of your office’s comprehensive audit of both of these departments,” they wrote. “Providing cost transparency throughout WAPA is of paramount importance to its customer groups.”
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