New Homeland Security director will sort through dirty laundry.
Everybody knows "that" guy. The free-loading friend who always borrows your car, crashes on your couch and sticks you with the bill. The one who orders lobster and seven vodka tonics before announcing that he conveniently forgot his wallet at home.
Tim Manning can relate. Only instead of a relatively paltry bar tab, the new director of the New Mexico Office of Homeland Security is stuck with an estimated $130,000 debt.
SFR has learned The Office of Domestic Preparedness-the federal branch of the OHS that divvies up security grants to individual states-began looking into the New Mexico department's distribution of grant resources when OHS employees submitted their yearly performance reports last December. At issue is how a portion of $21 million the office received last year was used.
"ODP's concern was that activities of employees-though all directly involved in Homeland Security functions -weren't specifically allowed in accordance to the funding," Manning says. "That portion of the funds allowed only for the administration of the grant. Not for operational activities…like active planning and intelligence."
Manning was officially appointed director of the Office of Homeland Security on March 28 after Dr. Annette Sobel stepped down to take a position as a scientist at Sandia National Laboratories.
"I was ready to step in," he says. Manning served in the State's Department of Public Safety before taking over the OHS. "I've been involved in homeland security since before it was called that. [And] I have really strong ideas of what it is I want to do."
First Manning has a spill to clean up in aisle three left behind by the previous administration.
When questioned about the matter by SFR, the governor's office issued the following statement: "Mismanagement of the Homeland Security Office, including budgets, was unfortunately characteristic of General Sobel and her former Chief of Staff David Albright's tenure. There is an ongoing effort to clean up and rectify these administrative problems."
Sobel declined comment for this story.
Prior to Sobel stepping down, managerial musical chairs hadn't been an uncommon game across the OHS since federal director Tom Ridge announced his resignation in December. What is uncommon is the lingering controversy regarding the allocation of federal grant money during Sobel's tenure.
Which means the money intended for the fiscal and clerical legwork of administering the grant money within OHS was used instead for hands-on activities like intelligence gathering. To an outside observer, it might appear a relatively innocuous misappropriation in a governmental department still getting its footing.
"Homeland Security is an evolving profession," Manning says. "We're in a dynamic time. Every day there is a new threat to address and we're constantly working to figure out how to most effectively address those threats."
But even in the seemingly convoluted system of government grant appropriation, the details of each ODP grant are outlined in numbing detail to ensure the efficient implementation of increasingly scarce resources. Which means that the activities of the five OHS employees under ODP scrutiny would have to have been signed off on by their superiors.
"None of this reflects on the performance of any individual," Manning says. "It regards the duties that those individuals were given by the director and chief of staff."
Problem is, Uncle Sam doesn't offer do-overs to his employees. Which means that OHS will need to reimburse the misallocated funds to the tune of an estimated $130,000.
"That's where we are now," Manning says. "There are continuing discussions. We have a tentative figure, but we're still working on all the analysis."
When that analysis is complete, Manning will have to scramble to recoup the department's debt. The logistics await a final price tag, though Manning expects to cull funds from a variety of resources-including potentially dipping into general salary expenditures -when the time comes to foot the bill.
In the meantime, Manning is working to streamline his department to make maximum use of the resources and manpower at his disposal. Since his appointment, Manning has been directing a rigorous appraisal of the department's past work and its future priorities. But before the OHS can fully forge ahead under the new administration, it must clean up after the previous one.
"I consider this to be an important thing to address so that we can move forward," Manning says. "That said, it's not keeping us from moving forward with our other Homeland Security activities."
