Reply #48: Let Google be your friend. Some links:

[struggle4progress]

Official, Abramoff associate arrested

David Hossein Safavian, the Bush administration’s top federal procurement officer in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), was arrested yesterday based on a three-count criminal complaint filed in federal court, according to a Justice Department statement.

The government alleges that Safavian, as chief of staff at the General Services Administration (GSA), helped an unnamed lobbyist acquire GSA-controlled property in and around Washington, D.C.

Sources say the lobbyist is likely Jack Abramoff, who has been indicted by a grand jury in Florida. Safavian and Abramoff worked together at Preston, Gates and the two traveled with Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and others on a golf trip to Scotland in 2002. <snip>

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/092005/brief1.html


Key OMB official arrested
By Kimberly Palmer
[email protected]

<snip> Safavian is charged with making false statements to a General Services Administration ethics officer and the GSA inspector general's office. Safavian served as chief of staff at GSA before moving to OMB. <snip>

Safavian allegedly misled GSA officials when he said the lobbyist "had no business" with GSA prior to the golf trip, when in fact Safavian had helped the lobbyist "in his attempts to do business with GSA," Justice said. <snip>

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0905/091905k1.htm


Top federal procurement official arrested
By CHRIS GOSIER

<snip> The three-count complaint filed Sept. 16 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. accuses Safavian of making false statements to a GSA ethics officer as well as the GSA inspector general while serving as the agency’s chief of staff from May 2002 to January 2004. <snip>

http://federaltimes.com/index2.php?S=1112781


Safavian the Lobbyist


<snip> Neither Safavian nor Brown had much relevant professional experience before they received their political appointments. As Government Executive wrote last summer about Safavian:

"He doesn't have a lot of background in procurement, so the hope is that he's a good learner," says Steven Kelman, who served as federal procurement administrator in the Clinton administration. "I don't know where David Safavian comes out on ," says Allan Burman, another former procurement chief. Angela Styles, who held the top acquisition post until last September, says Safavian has "no apparent philosophy" on procurement issues.

What Safavian did have plenty of was lobbying experience and political connections. <snip>

http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2005/09/safavian_the_lo.html