DOJ Inspector General Investigates Travel by Flores.

Youth Today:



The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the administrator of its juvenile justice office used government funds to take trips that were more about personal recreation than government business.



Staffers who traveled with J. Robert Flores, head of the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, have told investigators that Flores spent a lot of his time on personal recreation and little on work.



"Whenever I went with Bob, it was sports activities, eating a lot," said one staffer. "It was not a flat-out boondoggle, but it was close."



The department's Office of the Inspector General has collected Flores' travel records and interviewed staffers who have traveled with him over the past several years. One staffer said the inspector general is looking at "dozens" of trips.



Another person who traveled with Flores said the administrator seemed to spend most of his time playing golf, spending little time at whatever conference they had traveled to attend.



"I saw him leave [the hotel] both days with his golf shoes and golf bag" and didn't see him again until evening, that person said. "He showed up at night for the banquet" at the conference they were attending.

The first staff member said that during one multi-day trip, Flores "showed up at one speaking engagement" and did little, if any, other official work.

More from Murray Waas:

“Flores would golf during the day while on official travel around the country on tax payer funds,” said Scott Peterson, a former staff member at OJJDP who traveled with Flores on various occasions.

An OIG investigator questioned one staff member about Flores’ travel and about an ex-Colonel in the Honduran army hired by Flores who at one time ran for president of Honduras.

The staffer said the Human Resources Department [of DOJ] was concerned that giving access to the DOJ computer system to a non-US citizen and a former Honduran Colonel could be dangerous for security reasons.

Fonseca, whose Honduran military career spanned three decades, was contracted to work on faith-based and gang issues…

Fonseca attended Church with Flores, according to DOJ staffers, and is married to Deborah Lynne De Moss, a major GOP contributor. Fonseca himself donated $2,000 to Bush in 2004, the same year he was hired, and reportedly raised about $50,000 more on behalf of the president…

In a farewell to his colleagues in July of 2007, Fonesca wrote in an email: “It is my hope and prayer that the joy and peace of Jesus Christ will be real to each on of you.”