Regarding our planet-healing Department of Energy, an update: "Deputy secretary insists on security detail so he can fly business class"

Deputy secretary insists on security detail so he can fly business class

Special agents tasked with protecting the Department of Energy (DOE) have blown the whistle on what they describe as a dangerous culture of “fraud, waste, and abuse” that includes drinking on the job, mismanagement of weapons, falsification of security reports, and “wasteful spending” that reaches all the way to the deputy secretary of energy.
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The agents’ letter exposes a dysfunctional security office marred by corruption.

From wasteful spending habits to agents consuming alcohol on the job, the security officers decry a culture of “mismanagement” and cronyism that has led at least 14 “highly qualified and experienced line agents” to quit their posts in protest over the past several years.
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Among the allegations is the claim that Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman has demanded executive protection during all international travel so that he can “maintain his business class travel status,” rather than because there are credible threats on his safety, the letter states.

One Capitol Hill source said that the cost to fly Poneman and his security detail in business class is extremely wasteful.

“Deputy Secretary Poneman has wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer’s money as one of the most traveled administration officials because he thinks he’s too good to sit with the 99 percent,” the source said. “Not only does he owe Congress and the administration an answer for this, he owes us our money back.”