WASHINGTON – Inside sources tell Breitbart News that a top Obama administration official is being forced out for steering a six-figure contract to a friend.
Carl Fillichio, head of the Department of Labor’s public affairs office, was reportedly asked to step aside by Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. Perez wants Fillichio out “the sooner the better,” according to sources.
So what did he do wrong?
Fillichio spent $200,000 in taxpayer money to promote a Department of Labor online book club celebrating the department’s centennial (the Labor Department came into existence in 1913 during the Woodrow Wilson administration). The book club included such titles as “Gay Issues In the Workplace,” “Gay New York,” the Harvey Milk biography “The Mayor of Castro Street,” “The New Jim Crow,” and Saul Alinsky’s “Rules For Radicals.”
Fillichio steered the promotional contract to a D.C.-area firm called Concepts Inc. Insiders describe the proprietors of the firm as “friends” of Fillichio.
“Fillichio is still at the department, but has transitioned into a new role in the office of the Deputy Secretary,” Labor Department spokesman Jesse Lawder told Breitbart News. “He has not been replaced yet as head of OPA, and Dori Henry, who has been the Senior Managing Director for OPA, is the acting agency head.”
An inspector general report found that the Concepts Inc. contract was not awarded through a proper competitive bidding process.
“We found no evidence this procurement was properly planned to obtain competition to the maximum extent practicable as required,” according to the inspector general audit entitled “Allegation of Wasteful Spending Related to a Contract with Concepts, Inc.”
The Department gave two potential vendors “only 29 hours” to respond to questions about the potential job.
“Due to the lack of planning for this acquisition, including the limited response time for proposals and insufficient details in the statement of work, and the limiting of competition, the Department could not ensure it received best value,” the report concluded.
Fillichio has run the Department’s public affairs office since the beginning of the Obama administration in January 2009. He previously served in the Clinton administration and led a climate change-themed promotional partnership with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office while working for Lehman Brothers.
Secretary Perez’s speechwriter Dori Henry has already changed her LinkedIn profile to reflect that she is now “Senior Managing Director” of the Department’s Office of Public Affairs.