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House Committee Investigating State Department IG

September 18, 2007 8:17 PM

ABC News' Kirit Radia Reports: House Oversight committee chair Henry Waxman D-Calif., sent a letter to the State Department today saying that the committee will be investigating whether State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard looked the other way on fraud cases "to protect the State Department and the White House from political embarrassment."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack wouldn't comment on the letter earlier today but the IG's office released a statement with Krongard's response. "The allegations, as described to me and in certain media reports, are replete with inaccuracies including those made by persons with their own agendas," Krongard says.

Waxman's letter claims that Krongard, among other allegations, refused to send investigators to pursue allegations of wasteful spending and procurement fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, prevented investigators from cooperating with the Justice Department investigation into fraud and abuse at the New Embassy Compound in Baghdad (Krongard testified before Waxman's committee on this very issue earlier this summer, saying that he had found no evidence to corroborate claims of abuse by the construction company First Kuwaiti), impeded efforts to investigate arms smuggling into Iraq by a private security contractor, and edited audits to remove elements critical of the State Department.

Waxman's committee will hold a hearing on these allegations on October 16, 2007.

You can find the text of Waxman's 14-page letter to Krongard by clicking here.

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