Investigating NASA's Chief Inspector

The Orlando Sentinel has gotten its hands on a probe into the activities of NASA Inspector General Robert Cobb. Investigators from the Housing and Urban Development Department, who were called in to conduct the investigation for the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, have looked at 69 allegations against Cobb, most of them centering around charges that he has lacked independence from NASA's political leadership. Career employees in Cobb's office say he's in the habit of putting his feet up on his desk in their faces and reminding them that "I'm a [expletive] presidential appointee." In the two years before Cobb's arrival at NASA, the IG's office issued an average of 51 audit reports annually. Since then, the office has averaged only 26 reports per year. A special PCIE committee will now decide what, if anything, happens to Cobb, who disputes the charges and says they come mostly from disgruntled former employees.