Report: NASA watchdog too cozy with boss

updated 8:12 a.m. ET April 6, 2007

WASHINGTON - NASA's top watchdog routinely tipped off department officials to internal investigations and quashed a report related to the Columbia shuttle explosion to avoid embarrassing the agency, investigators say.

A report by the Integrity Committee, a government board that investigates inspectors general, found that Robert Cobb "created an appearance of a lack of independence," and it questioned whether NASA would do enough to reprimand him.

NASA administrator Michael Griffin has proposed sending Cobb to leadership training and requiring that he meet regularly with department officials on how to improve, but that is not enough, said Integrity Committee Chairman James Burrus.

"All members of the committee believe that disciplinary action, up to and including removal, could be appropriate," he said in a previously unreleased report that also accused Cobb of abusing authority to create an "abusive work environment."

In responses to the Integrity Committee, Griffin defended Cobb in noting that he was being faulted for the mere appearance of a conflict of interest. Cobb has acknowledged he cultivated relationships in the department to build trust but said he never stepped over the line.

"This has been a trying year for Mr. Cobb and I have been impressed with his continued focus on his professional obligations to the Congress and to this agency," Griffin wrote. He said the report "does not contain evidence of a lack of integrity on the part of Mr. Cobb."

The report, completed Jan. 22 and made public this week by the House Committee on Science and Technology, threatens to renew questions of conflicts of interest and cronyism in a Bush administration under fire for allegedly exerting undue political influence in the firing of U.S. attorneys.

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