May 22, 2002
Congressman Van Hilleary (R-Tenn.)
114 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Van Hilleary for Governor
P.O. Box 680127
Franklin, TN 37068-0127
Re: Failure of Federal Agencies to Produce Independent Annual Certified Financial Statements and Reliable Financial Systems; $3.3 Trillion of Undocumented Adjustments at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Department of Defense (DOD) for fiscal 1998-2000 (the “missing money”).
Dear Congressman Hilleary:
I had the opportunity to attend your presentation in early March at the offices of First South Bank in Bolivar. You reviewed your qualifications to serve as our next Governor of Tennessee. Your focus was on the importance of your qualifications and ability to bring financial responsibility and accountability to Tennessee state government. During questions and answers, you confirmed that you were aware that there was over $3.3 trillion of missing money at DOD and HUD for fiscal 1998-2000. When asked what you had done to figure out what money is gone and how we get it back and make sure that this does not happen again, your response was that you were only one of more than 400 members of the House of Representatives and that there was really nothing you could do.
As a follow up, I have prepared the following questions with the help of the members of the Hickory Valley Baptist Church Women’s Bible Class. Your responses to more specific questions are necessary for us to assess your qualifications to manage complex government budgets and financial problems. They will also help us to understand what actions we can take to ensure that our tax dollars are managed according to the law and lost or stolen money is recovered and returned to the US Treasury.
We appreciate your sending a written response to our questions to:
The Hickory Valley Baptist Church – Women’s Bible Class
PO Box 157
Hickory Valley, Tennessee 38042
We anticipate asking these or similar questions to the other candidates running in Tennessee this year.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at catherine@solari.com. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely yours,
Catherine Austin Fitts
Solari, Inc.
Attachment: Questions
Cc:
Members, Hickory Valley Baptist Church, Women’s Bible Class
Tennessee Media
I. Committee Positions and Appropriation Votes
What have your committee responsibilities been since the fall of 1997? Please explain briefly how they relate to oversight of the agencies that have reported large undocumented adjustments and missing money from fiscal 1998 on, including DOD, HUD, Education and the Department of Interior – Bureau of Indian Affairs, and provide your voting record on appropriations for these agencies for the federal budget years 1999-2003.
II. Education
What steps have you taken to inform yourself about the missing money and the failure of federal agencies to manage their resources properly from the fall of 1997 to date?
III. Staff Assignments
What steps have you taken to assign your staff resources to investigating or trying to illuminate or recapture the missing money from fiscal 1998 to date? Please describe briefly.
IV. Letters and Meetings
What correspondence have you initiated and what meetings have you requested with the following agencies to stop any losses and fraud and to get any missing money back?
– Department of Treasury
– DOD
– HUD
– Department of Education
– Office of Management and Budget
– Department of Interior – Bureau of Indian Affairs
What steps have you taken to have the above agencies illuminate cash bonus payments to personnel involved in accounting and financial management or agency leadership? In this respect, what correspondence and meetings have you initiated with:
– Office of Personnel Management
V. Requests for Investigations
Please list all requests for investigations that you have made of the agencies and offices with responsibility to investigate federal financial and contracting fraud and related personnel and contractor management issues, including:
General Accounting Office
Inspector General – DOD
Inspector General – HUD
Inspector General — Education
Inspector General — Department of Treasury
Inspector General – Interior (Bureau of Indian Affairs)
Department of Justice
President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency
Office of Personnel Management
Please list all requests that you have made for analysis of the impact of the missing money on the federal credit and the feasibility and cost of financing the federal deficit and government operations as well as the impact on the competitive value of the US dollar in world markets, including from:
Congressional Budget Office
Congressional Research Office
Department of Treasury
VI. Disclosure and Oversight of Contractors
Please list all efforts you have made with any agencies to:
– publicly identify contractors responsible for management of agency computer and information systems as well as accounting, depository
and payment software and systems;
– hold contractors accountable for performance;
– recapture payments where contractors fail to perform.
Have you asked for recommendations for reform regarding contractor choice, compensation and accountability from?
General Services Administration
DOD Audit
Department of Justice
Will you commit to provide the public during this election cycle with a contracting budget for each agency that is missing money? If not, why not?
VII. Hearings
What hearings have you held or intend to hold regarding the missing money?
VIII. Floor Speeches by Special Order
How many floor speeches have you given or do you intend to give about the missing money?
IX. Education and Enlistment of other Congressional Representatives
What efforts have you made to educate or enlist your other Congressional representatives and leadership?
X. Education of Constituents
The missing money is the equivalent of $11,700 per American citizen. What is your annual budget funded by taxpayers to communicate with your constituents? Please list the efforts you have made to communicate about the missing money with your constituents and engage their support in protecting our resources?
XI. Legislation
What legislation have you introduced or co-sponsored to enforce financial accountability in the federal government, including recapturing monies lost or stolen?
What legislation have you introduced or co-sponsored to ensure transparency or support enforcement efforts with concrete consequences for failure to perform:
– Accessible public disclosure of all federal contracts and contracting budgets by agency and by geographic location;
– Accessible public disclosure of all federal appropriations, assets and credit originations and portfolios by place;
– Firing and debarment of contractors who fail to perform their responsibilities to build and manage reliable and trustworthy financial systems;
– Conditioning of budget authorizations and appropriations on maintenance of financial standards;
– Conditioning of agency cash bonuses on agency financial performance;
– Recapturing of missing money.
XII. Campaign Donations
Please list the campaign donations you have received from federal government contractors at DOD, HUD, the Department of Treasury and Interior, as well as their law firms, lobbyists, employees and investors.
XIII. Your Actions Prior to November
Please list the actions that you will commit to take between now and the elections to find our missing money and get it back.