STEPHEN LABATON wrote:
November 5, 2005 Spending Inquiry for Top Official on Broadcasting
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 - Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the head of
the federal agency that oversees most government broadcasts to foreign
countries, including the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, is the
subject of an inquiry into accusations of misuse of federal money and
the use of phantom or unqualified employees, officials involved in that
examination said on Friday.
Mr. Tomlinson was ousted from the board of the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting on Thursday after its inspector
general concluded an investigation that was critical of him. That
examination looked at his efforts as chairman of the corporation to seek
more conservative programs on public radio and television.
But Mr. Tomlinson remains an important official as the
chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The board, whose
members include the secretary of state, plays a central role in public
diplomacy. It supervises the government's foreign broadcasting
operations, including Radio Martí, Radio Sawa and al-Hurra; transmits
programs in 61 languages; and says it has more than 100 million
listeners each week.
The board has been troubled lately over deep internal
divisions and criticism of its Middle East broadcasts. Members of the
Arab news media have said its broadcasts are American propaganda.
People involved in the inquiry said that investigators
had already interviewed a significant number of officials at the agency
and that, if the accusations were substantiated, they could involve
criminal violations.
Last July, the inspector general at the State
Department opened an inquiry into Mr. Tomlinson's work at the board of
governors after Representative Howard L. Berman, Democrat of California,
and Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, forwarded
accusations of misuse of money.
The lawmakers requested the inquiry after Mr. Berman
received complaints about Mr. Tomlinson from at least one employee at
the board, officials said. People involved in the inquiry said it
involved accusations that Mr. Tomlinson was spending federal money for
personal purposes, using board money for corporation activities, using
board employees to do corporation work and hiring ghost employees or
improperly qualified employees.
Through an aide at the broadcasting board, Mr.
Tomlinson declined to comment Friday about the State Department inquiry.
In recent weeks, State Department investigators have
seized records and e-mail from the Broadcasting Board of Governors,
officials said. They have shared some material with the inspector
general at the corporation, including e-mail traffic between Mr.
Tomlinson and White House officials including Karl Rove, a senior
adviser to President Bush and a close friend of Mr. Tomlinson.
Mr. Rove and Mr. Tomlinson became friends in the
1990's when they served on the Board for International Broadcasting, the
predecessor agency to the board of governors. Mr. Rove played an
important role in Mr. Tomlinson's appointment as chairman of the
broadcasting board.
The content of the e-mail between the two officials
has not been made public but could become available when the
corporation's inspector general sends his report to members of Congress
this month.
That inspector general examined several contracts that
were approved by Mr. Tomlinson but not disclosed to board members. The
contracts provided for payments to a researcher who monitored the
political content of several shows, including "Now" with Bill Moyers,
and payments to two Republican lobbyists who were retained to help
defeat a proposal in Congress that would have required greater
representation of broadcasters on the corporation's board.
The inspector general also examined the role of a
White House official, Mary C. Andrews, in Mr. Tomlinson's creation of an
ombudsman's office to monitor the political balance of programs.
Mr. Tomlinson has said he took those steps to counter
what he called a clear liberal tilt of public broadcasting. But
broadcasting executives and critics of the corporation say the steps
violated the corporation's obligations to insulate broadcasting from
politics.
On Thursday Mr. Tomlinson was forced to step down from
the corporation, which directs nearly $400 million in federal money to
public radio and television, after the board was briefed about the
conclusions by its inspector general. In that inquiry, examiners looked
at accusations that Mr. Tomlinson improperly used corporation money to
promote more conservative programming.
State Department officials said on Friday that al-Hurra,
the Arabic language satellite television network set up by the board of
governors, was also being examined by the inspector general for possibly
problematic procurement practices. That audit was first disclosed on
Friday by The Financial Times.
The audit began at the request of al-Hurra, the
officials said. A statement by the broadcasting board said that the
agency had "no indication of any wrongdoing."
The network, which receives nearly $50 million in
federal financing and is broadcast in 22 countries, was set up to
compete with al-Jazeera and other Arab news media. One State Department
official said Karen P. Hughes, under secretary of state for public
diplomacy, had been briefed on the subject and "awaits the findings of
the inspector general's audit."
Steven R. Weisman contributed reporting for this
article.