She saw her repair bill, then blew the whistle on a massive scam

[DogPoundPup]

One woman's research into a suspicious estimate exposed millions in misspent federal funds, and she won't see a dime

snip~
Since she spotted the errors in her own repair estimate case and began to suspect that they were systematic, Farmer, 58, has spent hundreds of hours obtaining, organizing and analyzing documents from the home repair program. Two federal judges have cited her role in bringing problems in the program to light.

Meanwhile, almost seven years after she first applied, her house still hasn't been fixed. One bedroom is sealed off because of mold, and plastic covers the walls of other rooms to protect her from mold exposure. However, after the Houston Chronicle inquired about her case, the city this month dispatched a team to inspect her house and prepare to repair or rebuild it.

Farmer regrets nothing.

"I would have done the same thing if, in the beginning, I had known the journey this became or how it ended," she says. "It was the right thing to do."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6181974.html

[NashVegas]

1. A Good Example

Of why I'm ready to go 3rd party. I feel very much like 2008 taught the lesson that it's no longer even remotely about policy: it's about whose friends get the fiefs.

[Donnachaidh]

2. She did great -- but this bit bothers the crap out of me --

"Michael Halpin, the employee in charge of the home repair program during this time, declined to comment. Halpin is now the district office administrator for U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston."

WHY is this guy still working anywhere in the Government?

[xchrom]

3. that should bother all of us. nt

[Frustratedlady]

5. Halpin should certainly answer to the allegations.

If guilty, he should be removed. Pull a few of these people out in the sunlight and the rest will straighten up for a while. At least until the next catastrophe. Once they get the wool in their teeth, they can't help themselves.

[librechik]

4. get ready for a lot of this--get ready to do it yourself!

Obama won't have time to find these scumbags. It will be up to us. The difference will be that something may be done about it eventually--notice Farmer spent the entire Bush administration being ignored.

[psychmommy]

7. my brother had that car in red.

it was a heavy metal car with a sort of pedals on it. it was so cool. thanks for the memory.

[riverdeep]

6. From reading some of the comments,

it sounds like this had been going on for some time. Each successive administration was just using the program to pad accounts and you can bet someone was getting kickbacks. This probably goes on all over the place with housing programs.

This Halpin guy, why is he allowed to fail up? The age of non-accountability needs to end. It happened under your watch, you failed, you're out.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

8. Marsha Farmer died in her house this weekend.

She died on Saturday according to the Carbuncle:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6184885.html

[Mari333]

9. whoa..she was my age

thats too young to die of 'natural causes' like the article says..thats bullshit. she had exposure levels to mold in her house that looks like it made her very ill...if i croak i would be pretty pissed off if someone said ;oh shes 57 she died of natural causes: yeah, i call bullshit.

[bertman]

10. Too late to rec, so here's a kick. It's too bad she died without getting the Medal of Freedom

Dubya was going to give her before he leaves office. NOT!!

Just one more example of no oversight of how our taxpayer dollars are spent. I'm so sick of hearing about this disgusting shit.

Entitlement jobs. That's how many folks look at them. They're entitled to a paycheck but they don't have to do shit for it.

I'm getting major flack on another thread for bringing this topic up, but I could care less. It's beyond outrageous and needs to be exposed.

One of my co-workers' sister went to work for a local city government. There were four workers in her office pool, including her. Being the new kid on the block she went in all gung ho, hoping to make a good impression. She would do the work she was assigned in less than half her work day, so she would ask her supervisor if there was anything else she could help with. After she finished doing some of the other workers' assignments she would still have time left over in her day. Meanwhile, the other workers took breaks, made personal calls, went shopping, sat around bullshitting and generally doing no work. After a week on the job, the supervisor told her that she needed to slow down and get with the program because she was making the other workers look bad. This was the supervisor saying this. She also said that they had a good thing going and didn't want anybody to think that they had time to do more work.

After less than a month of this scamming, my co-worker's sister gave her notice and took another job.

From what I hear from many employees of this city government, this type of thing is rampant.

So, if this repair business was a federal project, who was in charge of making sure that the charges for work were legitimate? Maybe the guy who got promoted to help the Congressional rep?

Your and my taxpayer dollars at work. Patronage or corruption? Take your pick.

[Blue_Tires]

11. ttt