Tag Archives: Office of the Inspector General

New Bedford Port Authority Probed by Feds Over Grant Application

A federal grant application submitted by the New Bedford Port Authority is the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Office of the Inspector General. The probe was initiated in October of 2020, according to Port Authority General Counsel Blair S. Bailey. Bailey did not say if the investigation is continuing, or what findings, if any were rendered by the OIG. Another source confirmed that the probe is ongoing. >click to read< 09:37

Author Alan Stein Says US Commerce FOIA Lawsuit Yielded Results

commerceA federal lawsuit moved the U.S. Department of Commerce to hand over thousands of pages of withheld documents needed to write a book, the lawyer of an environmental activist and author said Thursday. Writer, fisherman and environmental activist Alan Stein sued the Commerce Department under the Freedom of Information and Administrative Procedures Acts in July 2015. He claimed the department and two of its agencies — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Office of the Inspector General — had stonewalled his requests for documents he needed for a book he was writing. Last year, Stein told Courthouse News (click here)  the planned book required materials from an investigation of Arne Fuglvog, a former fishing vessel operator and fisheries official who spent time in prison for making false statements in fishing quota reports. Read the rest here 08:12 Read  The NOAA Oversight Project – Fisherman’s FOIA’s Squeeze NOAA, to see the that James Balsiger, the acting head of the National Marine Fisheries Service, was going to be replaced by fisherman/ Senate staffer Arne Fuglvog who favored catch shares or scientist Brian Rothschild who did not. Click here

There’s something fishy about the Department of Commerce’s denial of Alan Stein’s FOIA requests

He claims that the Commerce Department and two of its agencies – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its Office of the Inspector General – stonewalled his requests about an investigation that sent a former fisheries official to jail. Arne Fuglvog served on the NPFMC, which oversees assignment of fishing quotas in Alaska, from 2003 to 2006, and on an advisory council to the NPFMC before that. Then he went to work as an aide for Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. He played a large role in moving federal fishery management from purely conservation toward privatization of the resource which has in some areas of the country (and would have in others) sharply reduced the number of fishing vessels and canneries.” Read the rest here 07:24