Lawmaker to investigate State Department aide

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. lawmaker said on Tuesday he was investigating allegations a State Department auditor may have failed to look into government waste, fraud and abuse so as not to embarrass the Bush administration.

The investigation was disclosed in a letter from House of Representatives oversight committee Chairman Henry Waxman to State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard, who acts as an independent internal investigator for the State Department.

Among other things, the 14-page letter detailed allegations that Krongard kept his investigators from looking into possible procurement fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Current and former employees ... have contacted my staff with allegations that you interfered with on-going investigations to protect the State Department and the White House from political embarrassment," Waxman, a California Democrat, wrote in the letter obtained by Reuters.

"One consistent element in these allegations is that you believe your foremost mission is to support the Bush Administration, especially with respect to Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than act as an independent and objective check on waste, fraud and abuse on behalf of U.S. taxpayers," he added.

In a written statement, Krongard said he had not read Waxman's letter but that media reports about it suggested it was full of inaccuracies. He also said he looked forward to cooperating with the committee.

"I have been committed to discharging my statutory responsibilities ... to the best of my ability and without regard for personal interest," he said.

"The allegations, as described to me and in certain media reports, are replete with inaccuracies including those made by persons with their own agendas," he added.

Specific allegations in the letter include that Krongard:

-- refused to send investigators to Iraq and Afghanistan to investigate possible wasteful spending or procurement fraud in $3.6 billion in State Department contracts in the countries;

-- prevented his investigators from cooperating with a Justice Department probe into waste, fraud and abuse related to the new U.S. embassy being built in Baghdad;

-- kept investigators from seizing evidence that they believed would have implicated a large U.S. contractor in procurement fraud in Afghanistan;

-- interfered with any investigation into the conduct of Kenneth Tomlinson, the head of the Voice of America broadcaster, by giving him information about the inquiry;

In his comment, Krongard said he just visited Afghanistan and was headed to Baghdad for the rest of the month.

"I have tried to assist other agencies of government in their investigative activities in Iraq, while also taking care not to have overlapping criminal and civil matters involving my office adversely affect each other," he added. "In particular, I made one of my best investigators available to help Assistant U.S. Attorneys in North Carolina in their investigation into alleged smuggling of weapons into Iraq by a contractor."