Semi-Annual Report to Congress for the Period of April 1, 2011 to September 30, 2011

[Excerpt] I am pleased to submit this Semiannual Report to Congress, which highlights the most significant activities and accomplishments of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the six-month period ending September 30, 2011. During this reporting period, our investigative work led to 226 indictments, 172 convictions, and $50.9 million in monetary accomplishments. In addition, we issued 40 audit and other reports which, among other things, recommended that$677.1 million in funds be put to better use. OIG audits and investigations continue to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, economy, and integrity of DOL’s programs and operations. We also continue to investigate the influence of labor racketeering and/or organized crime with respect to internal union affairs, employee benefit plans, and labor-management relations. In the employment and training area, an OIG audit of Recovery Act funds spent on green jobs found that with 61 percent of the training grant periods having elapsed, grantees have achieved just 10 percent of their job placement goals. We recommended that the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) evaluate the program and obtain estimates of the need for the remaining $327 million of unspent grant funds. Another OIG audit found that ETA needs to better ensure that the Job Corps’ outreach and admissions service providers enroll only eligible students. If ETA’s recent and planned changes to the Job Corps’ student enrollment process are effectively implemented, then we estimate that nearly$165 million in funds could be put to better use by ensuring only eligible students are enrolled. Another audit estimated that up to $124 million in Workforce Investment Act funding was spent on training participants who did not obtain training-related employment, or information was insufficient to make the determination that training-related employment was obtained. An OIG investigation found a pattern of misconduct involving the Veterans’ Employment and Training Services (VETS) Assistant Secretary and two other senior VETS officials, which reflected a consistent disregard of Federal procurement rules and regulations. The Assistant Secretary and his Chief of Staff resigned following the issuance of our report. Our investigations continued to identify vulnerabilities and fraud in DOL programs. For example, an investigation resulted in two business owners being sentenced to more than three years in prison and ordered to forfeit$2.8 million as a result of their roles in an H-1B visa fraud conspiracy. Another investigation resulted in the owner of a medical practice group being sentenced to serve more than a year in prison and ordered to pay more than $2.5 million in restitution for fraudulent billings that were submitted to DOL’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurance companies. OIG investigations also continue to combat labor racketeering in the workplace. For example, one major investigation resulted in the sentencing of the former secretary-treasurer of the District Council of Carpenters to 11 years in prison and restitution of$5.7 million for receiving prohibited payments from contractors to allow the underpayment of contributions to the union-sponsored benefit plans, resulting in financial harm to union members. Another OIG investigation led to a former Plumbers Union worker being sentenced to three and one-half years in prison, among other things, after pleading guilty to charges of theft from an employee benefit plan and embezzlement of approximately $412,000 in union dues. The OIG remains committed to promoting the integrity, effectiveness, and efficiency of DOL. I would like to express my gratitude to the professional and dedicated OIG staff for their significant achievements during this reporting period. I look forward to continuing to work with the Department to ensure the integrity of programs and that the rights and benefits of worker and retirees are protected

Applying the take-grant protection model

The Take-Grant Protection Model has in the past been used to model multilevel security hierarchies and simple protection systems. The models are extended to include theft of rights and sharing information, and additional security policies are examined. The analysis suggests that in some cases the basic rules of the Take-Grant Protection Model should be augmented to represent the policy properly; when appropriate, such modifications are made and their efforts with respect to the policy and its Take-Grant representation are discussed

Semi-Annual Report to Congress for the Period of April 1, 2009 to September 30, 2009

[Excerpt] I am pleased to submit this Semiannual Report to Congress, which highlights the most significant activities and accomplishments of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG), for the six-month period ending September 30, 2009. During this reporting period, our investigative work led to 214 indictments, 221 convictions, and $123.1 million in monetary accomplishments. In addition, we issued 22 audit and other reports. OIG audits and investigations continue to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, economy, and integrity of DOL’s programs and operations. We also continue to investigate labor racketeering and/or organized crime influence against unions, employee benefit plans, and workers. From an audit perspective, the OIG is highly engaged in ensuring the integrity of DOL activities related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) funding. During this reporting period, we issued five reports to that end. Among our findings are that DOL implemented procedures for the accounting of Recovery Act financial activity, acted quickly to implement the premium-assistance provisions for workers who temporarily maintain their health insurance at group rates after losing their jobs, and effectively implemented the temporary program for additional unemployment compensation for eligible recipients. We also identified areas for improvement related to financial and performance reporting and programmatic coordination with states. An audit found shortcomings with DOL’s new iCert system, which is designed to identify inaccuracies in H-1B labor condition applications (LCAs) for foreign workers. We found that, because of missing electronic checks, manual reviews of the LCAs by analysts are necessary. However, increases in the volume of applications may result in analysts not being able to perform a 100 percent review. This increases the risk of LCAs being improperly certified. Our audits also continue to reveal that some Job Corps centers do not comply with requirements for reporting performance for student attendance and accountability. We also found that, at three centers, a contractor had not ensured compliance with procedures to address student misconduct. An audit of the handling of injured Federal employees’ reemployment status at two Federal workers’ compensation district offices found that the Department did not ensure that consistent intervention actions were taken toward removing cases from the periodic roll. This increased the risk of claimants continuing to receive full Federal Employee’s Compensation Act benefits after they were able to return to work or after their compensation could have been reduced. Our investigations continue to combat organized crime and/or labor racketeering involving the monies in union- sponsored benefit plans, internal union corruption, and labor-management relations. A major OIG investigation disclosed more than 30 years of organized crime control of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1235, which represents port workers in New Jersey. In another investigation, the business manager for the Electrical Workers Local Union No. 3, who was a former New York State assemblyman, was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment on racketeering, bank fraud, and false statement charges involving a number of schemes carried out for personal gain. OIG investigations also identified vulnerabilities and fraud in DOL programs, such as the foreign labor certification (FLC) program. One OIG investigation led to the recent sentencing of Viktar Krus and his co-conspirators to various periods of incarceration for fraudulently obtaining visas for more than 3,800 foreign nationals and defrauding the government of$7.4 million in payroll taxes. Because of our investigative expertise, the OIG is a member of the International Organized Crime (IOC) strategy headed by the U.S. Attorney General. The IOC is committed to combating crime by international organized groups. Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to former DOL Inspector General Gordon S. Heddell, who is now serving as the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Defense. During his leadership of more than eight years, the DOL-OIG consistently achieved significant results similar to those presented in this report. As Acting Inspector General, I look forward to continuing to work with the Secretary of Labor and her management team in ensuring the effectiveness of DOL in delivering services and protecting the rights and benefits of American workers and retirees

Two Sides of a Sargasso Sea : Successive Prosecution for the Same Offence in the United States and the United Kingdom

This article analyzes the U. S. constitutional law interpreting the concept of “same offence.” Included is a survey of the Supreme Court\u27s attempts to interpret constitutional text in order to provide adequate protection for the underlying double jeopardy interest against vexatious reprosecutions, which have frequently produced inconsistent and illogical results. Part III of this article analyzes U.K. law relating to the concept of “same offence,” where the same narrow double jeopardy protection adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court is supplemented with a broad discretion to prevent unfair successive prosecution that constitutes an abuse of process. Part IV draws lessons from a comparison of U.S. and U.K. law that might serve to rationalize and clarify the U.S. Supreme Court\u27s jurisprudence by supplementing the narrow same-elements interpretation of the Double Jeopardy Clause with a due process or supervisory-power protection against oppressive multiple prosecutions

The sharing of rights and information in a capability-based protection system

The question of sharing of rights and information in the Take-Grant Protection Model is examined by concentrating on the similarities between the two; in order to do this, new theorems are stated and proven for each that specifically show the similarities. The proof for one of the original theorems is also provided. These statements of necessary and sufficient conditions are contrasted to illustrate the proposition that transferring rights and transferring information are fundamentally the same, as one would expect in a capability-based system. Directions are then discussed for future research in light of these results