The chairman of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee has asked the U.S. Army’s top civilian official to investigate whether the embattled director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) misled lawmakers about morale at the agency.
In a July 13 letter to Army Secretary John M. McHugh, Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio) cited Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly’s “lack of transparency and forthrightness” regarding a May 2 report that slammed his leadership of the MDA. That report, prepared by the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (IG), said O’Reilly bullied and berated MDA employees in a manner that violates Army and Pentagon ethical standards.
Turner said he asked O’Reilly about morale at the agency following a hearing in March based on information the subcommittee received from MDA personnel. “What I received in return … was a series of apparently out of context ‘cherry-picked’ statements and findings that were in sharp disagreement with the IG report,” the letter said. “I am deeply concerned that there may have been an attempt to misdirect the subcommittee in its oversight.”
Turner asked McHugh, who has yet to take action on the inspector general’s report, to look into the matter. The report recommended that corrective action be taken but was not specific.
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