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Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee are losing patience with Sec. Markwayne Mullin’s pledge to turn over a list of all contracts signed by his predecessor that he plans to cancel.
During an appearance earlier this month, Mullin told the panel he would turn over his review of contacts that were signed by former Secretary Kristi Noem amid a series of accusations she improperly spent money, including on a $200 million ad campaign featuring herself riding a horse where contracts went to her allies.
The letter comes as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is also planning to sell or give away a number of expensive warehouses purchased under Noem that were slated to be turned into detention centers.
Ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said Mullin has not yet delivered on his promise to turn over the details in a timely manner.
His letter demands a full accounting of all contracts Mullin has “canceled, terminated (for convenience or default), rescinded, suspended, paused, or materially modified due to concerns about propriety, value, or compliance.”
“Significant questions have been raised regarding the propriety, value, and legitimacy of multiple large-dollar DHS contracting actions and planned awards. These include extremely high-cost luxury jet acquisitions for your personal tavel, self-promotional-advertising, wraps for component vehicles that sit unused, and warehouse purchases reportedly above appraised values that may now need to be sold at a massive loss,” Thompson wrote.
In response to the letter, a DHS spokesperson told The Hill, “As with any transition, we are reviewing agency policies and proposals. Any recipient of federal funding should expect accountability for how taxpayer dollars are spent.”
Mullin told the committee during his June 3 appearance that he had already canceled some of Noem’s contracts, but he said in some cases he was unable to renege on contacts already signed unless the Office of Inspector General (OIG) finds an underlying issue.
“We are looking at the contracts that weren’t already signed, and we did go through and cancel most of those,” Mullin said during the hearing.
“On the contracts, we stopped the contracts moving forward on some of the stuff that wasn’t already signed. Some of the contracts were already there, they’re there unless we — unless the IG takes a look at them and says that they were falsely signed under false circumstances, I can’t cancel unless it’s under penalty.”
Thompson said Mullin should not rely on OIG as the only arbiter of whether a contract is valid.
“While the Committee values the work of Inspectors General, DHS leadership has an independent obligation to identify, investigate, and address potential procurement misconduct. OIG investigations are essential but not exhaustive, and the Department must not treat the OIG as the sole or exclusive mechanism for detecting or stopping fraud, waste, abuse, or corruption,” he wrote.
Noem faced widespread criticism for her handling of contracts while leading DHS, both for spending heavily on some items and also for holding up grants and other awards with a policy that required her personal review on any spending over $100,000.
While that slowed processing of awards for basic functions like emergency preparedness, lawmakers were also furious that disaster funds were not reaching their states after major events.
But she also spent lavishly on other items, including planes she frequently used for personal travel.
The figures spent on warehouses also alarmed lawmakers, with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) saying earlier this year some of the buildings were bought at a “1,000 percent markup.”
According to The New York Times, DHS has spent $1 billion on warehouses, but now plans to sell seven warehouses that were purchased for a collective $700 million.
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