Magazine

Letters

November 1, 2003

Your article () said research employees were laid off in lieu of additional funding. You apparently were not aware that the underlying cause of the research division's financial difficulties was the hiring of permanent employees into positions that were funded by short-term grants. This practice by the research managers who preceded Adrian Miller and Marnell Davis resulted in recurring salary costs that continued after the grants expired. The staff of those preceding research managers kept the financial impact of these bad decisions hidden through a number of improper activities, including requesting services from vendors without purchase orders. Miller and Davis unraveled the wrongdoing almost immediately upon their arrival at the research division, which resulted in staff resignations. In "The Rating Game," Brian Friel used our whistleblower cases against the Veterans Affairs Department to explore why employee evaluations don't accurately distinguish among top, good, mediocre and poor performers. The article () failed to mention McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, Okla., a Joint Munitions Command installation.

THE RATING RACKET

"The Rating Game"August

Your article implied there was a lack of corrective action, but a comprehensive plan was developed to remedy these problems. It included halting improper procurement practices; securing funding reimbursements through VA headquarters and grants; and, most importantly, a proposal to trim research staffing to the level supported by funding.

This was also a time of great upheaval at the West Los Angeles Medical Center. The facility was merging with another. Leadership changed, with three different directors in two years, and the problems dragged on. In the long run, the corrections were implemented as recommended. Unfortunately, the delays and subsequent scapegoating resulted in unwarranted harm to some very good people.

Richard Pasquale
Former chief financial officer
West Los Angeles VA Medical Center

The cases provide disturbing insights into the causes. Upon taking our jobs in the research division at the VA's West Los Angeles Medical Center, we found severe financial disorders and significant deficiencies in the ethics of human research. Dr. Dean Norman, the center's chief of staff, did not tell us of these problems. We worked relentlessly to reveal and resolve the deficiencies. Our supervisor, Dr. Stephen Pandol, chief of the research division, rated our performance highly and recommended us for special awards for our extraordinary effort to rectify problems that had been neglected for many years. The same leaders who later tried to fire us approved the awards, including one for Pandol.

The agency removed us from our positions and then attempted to fire us when our findings became public. Because it was apparent that the agency wanted to conceal its mismanagement, Pandol testified before Congress about both the human research problems and financial disorders.

It is not true that we blocked solutions. In fact, together we requested $1 million in bailout funds when we started to grasp the scope of the research division's financial problems. Norman and other managers did not act on this request and others that could have helped us resolve the deficiencies much more rapidly.

The agency's leaders blamed us and vilified us in the news media. The agency pressed groundless charges for more than four years in an attempt to fire us. Government resources were abused and wasted at the expense of addressing real issues.

The employee evaluation system doesn't mean anything when it is ignored at the convenience of those who have reason to retaliate in order to hide the truth. This is why we are whistleblowers.

Adrian Miller
Marnell Davis
Stephen Pandol

BOMB SQUAD

"Birth of a Bomb"August

No bomb, from 500 pounds to 5,000 pounds-smart or dumb-would do any good unless this plant filled it with explosives first. We are the Department of Defense's premier bomb maker. Our explosives produce that 8,500-degree fireball that leaves a 50-foot wide crater upon a JDAM's impact. Precision would be inconsequential if the JDAM kit were guiding an empty bomb casing. We have been filling bombs since 1943.

McAlester is the Department of Defense's largest munitions storage facility in the United States, with more than 6 million square feet of storage space in more than 2,200 facilities. And we do more than make the part that goes boom. We also renovate munitions and assemble missiles ranging from the Joint Standoff Weapon to the Maverick missile.

So, while you write about the high-tech, low-cost capability of the JDAM kit-and quite deservedly-don't forget that it's the professional employees at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant that make the JDAM story worth being told.

Mark Hughes
Public Affairs
McAlester Army Ammunition Plant

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