""Dr. Mann's research has been extensively reviewed by a number of independent parties, including the National Science Foundation, with never a suggestion of any fraud or research misconduct.""...via "Climate Depot's Exclusive Report Challenging Michael Mann's climate claims."
According to a 2009 Inspector General report and Freedom of Information documents, NSF has been so overwhelmed with porn viewing and staff romances for many years that it's had to divert personnel from scientific grant oversight to address the problem. The IG report said science staffing would be "significantly" affected for "years" to come. Following are 2 articles, one from the Washington Times and one from the NY Times:
""What kind of oversight is there when they have to shift people from looking at grant fraud to watch for people looking at pornography?"" said Leslie Paige, spokeswoman for nonpartisan watchdog Citizens Against Government Waste
9/29/2009, "Porn Surfing rampant at US science foundation," Washington Times, by Jim McElhatton
""To manage this dramatic increase without an increase in staff required us to significantly reduce our efforts to investigate grant fraud," the inspector general recently told Congress in a budget request.
- "We anticipate a significant decline in investigative recoveries and prosecutions
- in coming years
- as a direct result."
The budget request doesn't state the nature or number of the misconduct cases, but records obtained by The Times through the Freedom of Information Act laid bare the extent of the well-publicized porn problem inside the government-backed foundation. For instance, one senior executive spent at least 331 days looking at pornography on his government computer and chatting online with nude or partially clad women without being detected, the records show.
When finally caught, the NSF official retired. He even offered, among other explanations, a humanitarian defense, suggesting that he frequented the porn sites to provide a living to the poor overseas women....The independent foundation, funded by taxpayers to the tune of $6 billion in 2008, is tasked with handing out scientific grants to colleges, universities and research institutions nationwide. ...It has a total of 1,200 career employees. Recent budget documents for the inspector general cite a "6-fold increase in employee misconduct cases and associated proactive management implication report activities." ...Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for the nonpartisan watchdog Citizens Against Government Waste, called the situation "inexcusable."
"What kind of oversight is there when they have to shift people from looking at grant fraud to watch for people looking at pornography?" she said....
The foundation's inspector general uncovers scientific misconduct that can force the return of misused grant money to the government but told Congress
- it was diverted from that mission by the porn cases.
The office was unable to immediately provide an estimate of how much money the projected decline in investigative recoveries
- will cost taxpayers....
The newly obtained documents provide fresh evidence that the problem wasn't just an embarrassment: It was expensive and often went undetected for long periods of time.
The names of all of the employees targeted in the pornography cases were redacted from the more than 120 pages of investigative documents released to The Times. Names were withheld because none of the employees was subject to criminal prosecution, recent civil court action or debarment....
Another employee in a different case was caught with hundreds of pictures, videos and even PowerPoint slide shows containing pornography. Asked by an investigator whether he had completed any government work on a day when a significant amount of pornography was downloaded, the employee responded,
- "Um, I can't remember," according to records....
The foundation is hardly the only government agency to be embarrassed by disclosures about employees looking at pornography at work.
The inspector general for the Securities and Exchange Commission noted in a report last fall that it had recently conducted three investigations into employees who misused government computers to view pornography."...
9/29/2009, "Porn Surfing rampant at US science foundation," Washington Times, by Jim McElhatton----------------------------------------------------------------
"Two senior (NSF) agency employees used government travel money to pursue intimate relationships with subordinates."...
4/7/09, "Senators fault science agency over lax handling of pornography case," NY Times, by Gardiner Harris
"The National Science Foundation has failed to respond adequately to a government investigation that found that more than a dozen agency employees viewed or shared sexually explicit materials, two senators contend in a letter sent to the agency on Monday.
Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, and Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, asked the National Science Foundation to explain how the agency could have failed to detect the use of pornography that eventually involved more than 30 employees
In one case, a senior staff member used his agency computer to view live sexual performances and engage in sex-oriented online “chatting” with performers.
- “I am trying to learn how to use cam2cam capability on your asianbabes.com site,” he wrote in an e-mail message to the site from his agency computer. “I do not seem to be able to do that.”
But the senators’ letter noted that in 5 of 11 cases of employees viewing explicit material or being involved in sexual harassment cases,
- the agency had failed to take any personnel action,
had failed to notify its inspector general of any action taken
- or had failed to investigate the cases itself.
The foundation has not disciplined one 20-year employee who has acknowledged visiting pornography Web sites on his agency computer, the letter said. The agency has said it had been “unable to substantiate allegations sufficiently enough to support disciplinary action” despite the employee’s admissions, it said.
The senators wrote that they did not understand “how or why N.S.F. failed to take action.”
Their letter also noted that two senior agency employees used government travel money to pursue intimate relationships with subordinates.
And it said that all of the employees investigated for viewing sexually explicit material had been through the agency’s mandatory security awareness training.
“Clearly, N.S.F.’s current polices and their implementation are apparently insufficient to deter, among other things, inappropriate Web access for the purpose of viewing sexually explicit material,” the senators wrote."
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Ed. note: These articles describe an extremely troubled agency that freely admits it can't do the work it's being paid to do. The time frame for this reaches back indefinitely and carries forward at least a few years after 2009. Michael Mann's work isn't mentioned in these articles. The point is that NSF approval doesn't automatically confer scientific excellence.
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