Inquiry of Health Department’s Inspector General Is Expanded

The General Accounting Office has expanded its investigation of Health and Human Services Inspector General Janet Rehnquist, the daughter of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, beyond its initial focus on widespread personnel changes in her office, according to congressional investigators.

The GAO is now also looking into allegations involving a six-month delay in an audit of a Florida pension fund that could have benefited Gov. Jeb Bush, the unauthorized possession of a gun by Rehnquist and the shredding of documents after the GAO inquiry had begun, the investigators said.

Ben St. John, a spokesman for Rehnquist, confirmed that these additional elements have become part of the GAO inquiry. The GAO is the investigative arm of Congress.

Rehnquist, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Alexandria, Va., who worked in the White House under the first President Bush, supervises a staff of about 1,600. One of the office’s main tasks is to investigate allegations of fraud and waste in the huge Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs that are administered by HHS.

The GAO began looking at the operations of Rehnquist’s office in October in response to a request from Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and John B. Breaux (D-La.). In a letter to top GAO officials, the three said they were concerned “about the impact of the loss or reassignment of several senior managers on OIG operations.”

In a separate statement, Grassley said that since Rehnquist was confirmed in August 2001, there had been 19 senior staff changes in the office, including the retirement, resignation or reassignment of six deputy inspectors general, most of whom had at least 30 years’ experience at the agency.

“I want the GAO to determine whether the loss or transfer of these key people will erode this office’s performance,” Grassley said at the time.

The audit of a Florida state government pension fund, scheduled to begin in April, did not start until September, assuring that any potentially embarrassing results would not be known until after the Nov. 5 election in which Jeb Bush, President Bush’s brother, won a second term.

St. John said the audit was delayed at least three times at the request of Florida officials.

He said the delays were not linked to Florida politics, and that the outcome of the audit would not have been known until after the election even if the audit had started in April.

A congressional investigator disputed that, saying that interviews with people in Florida indicated that the audit “would have been done” before Nov. 5.

June Gibbs Brown, Rehnquist’s predecessor at HHS who served as inspector general at four federal agencies, said requests to delay an audit are unusual.

Late Wednesday, Rehnquist released internal documents on the audit decision and a letter to Grassley in which she said “my decision to delay the audit was based on the merits and not motivated by political reasons.”

She confirmed that the delay request came from Kathleen Shanahan, Bush’s chief of staff. Rehnquist said her staff advised her that it was reasonable.

Congressional investigators said they have also determined that Rehnquist, who is not licensed to own a gun, had an unloaded handgun in her office for a short time. St. John said he knew nothing about a handgun.

Rehnquist herself confirmed the document-shredding allegations in a letter last week to Grassley and Baucus. She ordered the document destruction stopped when she learned about it, she said.

St. John said document-shredding was “routine” at the office.