May 3, 2013

OIG Agents Testify

     From KOMU:
Social Security Administration agents said under oath Wednesday they requested a list of Missouri's concealed-carry permit holders on three occasions but ultimately never used the data. ...
Schilb and Troy Turk, Special Agent in Charge of the administration's Kansas City field office, told the committee they had planned to compare the list of Missouri's concealed-carry permit holders, of which there are more than 163,000, to a list of Missourians claiming mental disability for Social Security benefits. The intent was to detect fraud, but both men said the project was abandoned when they realized the large amount of data they would have to sift through. Turk said the agency never had any plans to share the list with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, but would have alerted the Missouri State Highway Patrol of any matches between the two lists.
     Interesting that Social Security had these agents testify. The agency certainly didn't have to allow this.
     I have trouble believing that high level officials at Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) were unaware of this. What other explanation could there be for Social Security having a seat on the White House working group on reducing gun violence -- a working group which only has eight members?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Looks like this working group is about background checks for whatever purpose, not just reducing gun violence. Makes perfect sense for SSA to have a seat at that table, since they routinely allow people with violent histories to be rep payees, since they currently can't do a comprehensive background check.