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Scott Higham


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August 2004: Journalist.

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RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Washington Post Source Jun 13, 2008

Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Jun 13, 2008 Who Killed Chandra Levy?: Chapter One: A Young Woman Disappears (part 1 of 12)

QUOTE: Now, the line of cadets executed the order of the city's chief of detectives, Cmdr. Jack Barrett: Search 100 yards from the roads that crisscross the park. But someone had made a mistake. D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey had wanted the cadets to search 100 yards off the park's trails. By limiting the search to the areas near the roads, the police would canvass a far smaller portion of the park and not go deep into the woods. Either Ramsey miscommunicated his order, or Barrett misunderstood it.

 Washington Post
May 01, 2008 Doan Ends Her Stormy Tenure as GSA Chief: Resignation Comes at White House's Behest

QUOTE: General Services Administration chief Lurita Alexis Doan has resigned as head of the government's premier contracting agency at the request of the White House, ending a tumultuous tenure in which she was accused of trying to award work to a friend and misusing her authority for political ends.

 Washington Post
May 24, 2007 Rules Skirted, Millions Wasted on Navy Boat Barriers

QUOTE: auditors concluded that NCIS hired companies that did little or no significant work on the boat barriers yet collected millions of dollars in fees.

 Washington Post
May 24, 2007 GSA Chief Violated Hatch Act, Special Counsel's Report Alleges

QUOTE: The U.S. Office of Special Counsel has found that General Services Administration chief Lurita Alexis Doan violated the federal Hatch Act when she allegedly asked GSA political appointees during a January briefing how they could "help our candidates" win the next election...

 Washington Post
May 23, 2007 Changes Spurred Buying, Abuses: Taxpayers Overcharged Millions in Sun Deal, Auditor Says

QUOTE: [Renewing the contract with Sun Microsystems] meant the government's leading contracting agency would be able to continue collecting millions of dollars in what are called industrial funding fees from Sun under rules that permit the GSA to take a percentage of every sale made to the government. It also meant that taxpayers would pay millions more than necessary, according to congressional investigators.

 Washington Post
Mar 30, 2007 Panel Asks Rove for Information on '08 Election Presentation

QUOTE: Jennings's 28-page presentation included 2006 election results and listed the names of Democratic candidates considered beatable and Republican lawmakers thought to need help. At a hearing Wednesday about the GSA, Waxman said the presentation and follow-up remarks allegedly made by agency chief Lurita Alexis Doan may have violated the Hatch Act, a law that restricts federal agencies and employees from using their positions for political purposes.

 Washington Post
Dec 25, 2006 Interior, Pentagon Faulted In Audits: Effort to Speed Defense Contracts Wasted Millions

QUOTE: The Defense Department paid two procurement operations at the Department of the Interior to arrange for Pentagon purchases totaling $1.7 billion that resulted in excessive fees and tens of millions of dollars in waste...."routinely violated rules designed to protect U.S. Government interests,"...

 Washington Post
Dec 02, 2006 GSA Chief Seeks to Cut Budget For Audits: Contract Oversight Would Be Reduced

QUOTE: The new chief of the U.S. General Services Administration is trying to limit the ability of the agency's inspector general to audit contracts for fraud or waste and has said oversight efforts are intimidating the workforce...

 Washington Post
Dec 25, 2005 The Quest for Hometown Security: Rogers's Sway Over Spending Benefits 'Silicon Holler' in Kentucky

QUOTE: Rogers is now tapping a new source of money for his district. As chairman of the House Appropriations homeland security subcommittee, he has encouraged contractors to move into his district and announced millions of dollars in anti-terrorism research at Kentucky colleges and universities. He has taken credit for $206 million in homeland-security-related funding for the state....But the Lexington Herald-Leader, one of the state's largest newspapers, has called him the "Prince of Pork."

 Washington Post
Oct 23, 2005 Contractor Accused Of Overbilling U.S.: Technology Company Hired After 9/11 Charged Too Much for Labor, Audit Says

QUOTE: Unisys billed taxpayers $131.12 an hour for a technical writer who should have made no more than $46.43 an hour. The extra money was generally not passed along to the employees but was kept by the company.

 Washington Post
Oct 09, 2005 Government Can't Explain Increase in 2002 TSA Contract: Homeland Security Office Says It Lacks Documentation on $343 Million Change

QUOTE: The modification to the contract involved switching the interview sites for tens of thousands of airline passenger screener jobs ... The change added hundreds of millions of dollars to a contract that increased from $104 million to $741 million in nine months.

 Washington Post
Jun 30, 2005 Audit Details High Costs of Contractor: TSA Lost Control of Over $300 Million Spent by Contractor to Hire Airport Screeners After 9/11

QUOTE: The audit refers to internal Pearson reports that sharply criticized the behavior of some of the 168 subcontractors hired to help complete the contract. One Pearson official, referring to a security company hired to provide services, wrote that "there appeared to be serious fraud occurring."

 Washington Post
Jun 30, 2005 The High Cost of a Rush to Security: TSA Lost Control of Over $300 Million Spent by Contractor to Hire Airport Screeners After 9/11

QUOTE: While government officials in the past have hinted at problems with the contract...the extent of the questionable spending has never been disclosed. Only a few details have emerged in brief congressional testimony and scattered news reports. Government officials have repeatedly denied media requests for access to the audit, which was completed last year and labeled "For Official Use Only."

 Washington Post
May 23, 2005 U.S. Border Security at a Crossroads: Technology Problems Limit Effectiveness of US-VISIT Program to Screen Foreigners

QUOTE: Such partnerships can blur the lines between the government and corporations, Schooner and other contract specialists said....an "indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity contract." The government can cancel the project at any point. The contractor is paid for specific tasks along the way, even if the overall system ultimately does not work. For all those reasons, no one is certain of the final cost.

 Washington Post
May 23, 2005 Top Psychiatric Group Urges Making Gay Marriage Legal

QUOTE: Representatives of the nation's top psychiatric group approved a statement Sunday urging legal recognition of same-sex marriage.

 Washington Post
May 22, 2005 Contracting Rush For Security Led To Waste, Abuse

QUOTE: Billions of dollars were spent to protect Americans with improved passenger screening, bomb-detection machines at airports, radiation monitors at ports and computer networks to identify suspected terrorists at the borders.... But the government's internal audits have repeatedly questioned the cost and effectiveness of the equipment and security systems bought from corporations that received a torrent of money under loosened regulations, limited oversight and tight congressional deadlines.

 Washington Post
Mar 05, 2005 Probe of Security Contracts Sought: Some Post-9/11 Awards Given Without Bids to Native Alaskans

QUOTE: Established in 1971 under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to resolve historical land disputes, the corporations have been granted special contracting privileges because of provisions in federal law sponsored by members of Congress, particularly Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).

 Washington Post
Aug 24, 2004 No Welcome in Guantanamo as Rights Groups Land: ACLU, Amnesty International Finally Arrive to Witness Terrorism Trials, but Military Forgets to Greet Them

QUOTE: It would be 40 more hours before Romero and Musa received their security badges. In the meantime, they were detained Monday morning because they did not have security badges.

 Washington Post