Recovery Blog

Calvin L. Scovel III, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), supervises a 400-plus staff that works to support the agency’s priorities of transportation safety and effective program delivery and performance.

Mr. Scovel joined DOT after 29 years of active service in the U.S. Marine Corps, from which he retired as a Brigadier General. His last military assignment was as a senior judge on the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals. He previously served as Assistant Judge Advocate General of the Navy for Military Justice, the principal advisor to the Secretary of the Navy and the Judge Advocate General on all criminal justice policy matters. As prosecutor, defense counsel, or judge in 250 courts-martial, Mr. Scovel dealt with charges of murder, rape, child sexual assault, and drug trafficking.

During his time with the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which included all Marine amphibious forces in Operation Desert Storm and later in a NATO exercise above the Arctic Circle in Norway, Mr. Scovel served as senior legal advisor.

Mr. Scovel was in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. His military awards include the Legion of Merit (four awards) and Combat Action Ribbon.

He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his juris doctor degree from Duke University School of Law. He also received a master’s degree from the Naval War College. Mr. Scovel is married and has two sons.

As Inspector General (IG) for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a position she has held since December 2002, Phyllis K. Fong is the senior oversight official for one of the largest and most diverse departments in the federal government. USDA’s mission includes the management of traditional farm programs, private lands conservation, domestic food assistance, agriculture research and education, agricultural marketing, international trade, meat and poultry inspection, forestry, and rural development programs.

Ms. Fong is responsible for audits, evaluations, investigations, and law enforcement efforts, relating to USDA’s programs and operations. Her office provides leadership in promoting economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in USDA programs and addressing fraud, waste, and abuse.

Ms. Fong was recently elected as the first Chair of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), which was established by the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008. CIGIE’s members include 67 federal Inspectors General, and the organization’s mission is to promote economy and effectiveness in federal programs through coordinated government-wide activities.

Prior to her appointment at USDA, Ms. Fong served as the Inspector General of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) from April 1999 until December 2002. A career member of the Senior Executive Service, she had also held several positions at SBA OIG, including Assistant Inspector General for Management and Legal Counsel (1994-1999) and Assistant Inspector General for Management and Policy (1988-1994). She also served as Assistant General Counsel for the Legal Services Corporation (1981-1983) and as an attorney with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1978-1981).

Ms. Fong was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. She graduated from Pomona College with a B.A. degree in Asian studies and earned her J.D. degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law. Ms. Fong is a member of the Tennessee and District of Columbia bars. She and her husband, Paul Tellier, have two children.

Gregory H. Friedman, a member of the Recovery Board since its inception in 2009, has been Inspector General (IG) of the Department of Energy  since his U.S. Senate confirmation in 1998. As IG, he is responsible for a nationwide, independent program of audits, inspections, and law enforcement efforts related to the department’s programs and operations, including its over $130 billion in assets and 107,000 federal and contractor personnel.

Mr. Friedman received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Temple University and a master’s degree in business administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University. In 1979-1980, Mr. Friedman was selected as a Princeton Fellow in Public Affairs and spent a year in residence at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Studies.

In 2002, Mr. Friedman was named by the Comptroller General of the United States to serve as a member of the Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards. From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Friedman served as Vice Chair of the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency, then the parent organization of the 11,000 member federal Inspector General community. In addition, he led the development of the Federal Audit Manual, for the first time providing universal guidelines for conducting federal financial audits.

During his federal career, which began in 1968, Mr. Friedman has received numerous awards, including the Department of Energy’s Meritorious Service Award, the Meritorious Presidential Rank Award, and the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Executive.

In its three years of existence, the Recovery Board has won many accolades for its commitment to transparency and accountability. The praise often has centered on the development of our websites, FederalReporting.gov and Recovery.gov, the principal vehicles we use to collect and display spending data from recipients of Recovery Act contracts, grants and loans.

The big winner, of course, is the public. If you are looking for what happened to a contract or grant award — where the money went, how many jobs were funded — all you have to do is visit Recovery.gov and you’ll get what you need.

The Board fortunately has an excellent staff working behind the scenes. The other day, we lost one of our best, James Warren, a technology wizard who was on loan to the Board from the Department of Interior since the Recovery program began in February 2009. Like many creative people, Jim believed his job was done and it was time to move on to the next challenge. He decided to go back to the Office of the Chief Information Officer at Interior.

Jim is a rare commodity — brilliant, but never one looking for credit. When I joined the Board three years ago, the first guy I went looking for was Jim Warren. He worked around the clock in developing the information technology systems you see when you visit Recovery.gov and FederalReporting.gov. The Recovery Operations Center, our prized analytical operation, has Jim’s stamp on it. He also is the architect of the ROC’s case management system.

Last year, the President created the Government Accountability and Transparency Board.  Jim worked with that Board on spending data issues and developing a centralized technology framework for fraud detection and prevention. His ideas are central to many of the recommendations in the GAT Board’s report sent to the President in December.

Jim was our go-to guy. He remains available to consult as needed but we will miss his day-to-day presence.

-- Michael Wood, Executive Director, Recovery Board