Housing official says she was replaced for rejecting Carson's costly office redecoration

[octoberlib]

A senior career official in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development has alleged that she was demoted and replaced with a Donald Trump appointee after refusing to break the law by funding an expensive redecoration of Ben Carson’s office.


Helen Foster said she was told “$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair” after informing her bosses this was the legal price limit for improvements to the HUD secretary’s suite at the department’s Washington headquarters.

Foster, 47, claimed that she also faced retaliation for exposing a $10m budget shortfall, and for protesting when she was barred from handling a pair of sensitive freedom of information act (FOIA) requests relating to Trump apparently because she was perceived to be a Democrat.

A copy of a complaint letter filed by Foster to a watchdog for federal employees was obtained by the Guardian. It alleges that HUD violated laws protecting whistleblowers from reprisals. Foster is seeking a public apology, compensatory damages and reinstatement as HUD’s chief administrative officer.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/27/hud-ben-carson-office-redecoration-trump-appointee

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Anybody Surprised?

Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

[Ohiogal]

2. Oh yeah,

Gotta order some more golden framed paintings of Carson being touched by Jesus and some more Bible verses painted on the wall! Golden furniture to match! How else can you expect the devout Christian man to do his job???

[gratuitous]

3. Where's the "waste, fraud, and abuse" crowd?

Republicans have for decades had a reliable cadre of assholes to squawk about "waste, fraud, and abuse" of tax dollars anytime there's a government expenditure on anything but their salaries and benefits. Well, here's some of that WFA (not to mention Scott Pruitt and Donald Trump), but I have yet to hear a peep from that bunch. Curious.