House Committee on Government Reform Chairmen Request Pile of Records Linked to Jaffer Case.

According to the Washington Post: All summer, federal-dom has been abuzz over a steamy U.S. Postal Service Inspector General’s report accusing the agency’s former public affairs chief of heavy drinking, expense account chicanery and sexual harassment. But who knew that the subject of the report, Azeezaly S. Jaffer, has spent the season on vacation, courtesy of the Postal Service?

Late last week, the Postal Service issued new post-Jaffer expense guidelines. Dinners, they say, should not exceed $50 per person, more frugal than, for example, the $1,066.08 that the IG says Jaffer charged the Postal Service for dinner for three, including 16 drinks.

McKiernan wondered last week why anyone remains interested in this summer’s scandal. But Congress aims to keep Jaffer’s endless summer warm at least through autumn.

On Friday, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) who chairs the House Committee on Government Reform, and the committee’s ranking minority member, Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), sent a letter to Potter requesting a pile of records linked to Jaffer’s case. “The Inspector General’s report of clearly unacceptable conduct by a senior postal official is troubling to all of us,” the letter reads. The Postal Service has until Sept. 28 to respond.

Jaffer spent some of his summer vacation telling his side to Sidley Austin, which recently released a 42-page “white paper” denying the charges against him. Full Story 

  • Jaffer’s White Paper (PDF)
  • Jaffer’s Response to the IG’s Report (PDF)
  • Jaffer’s White Paper Exhibits

    •  Excerpt from Jaffer’s White Paper

    The Postal Service Vests Substanital Discretion with Mr. Jaffer to Carry Out His Official Duties

    “The Postal Service and its policies give officers, like Mr. Jaffer, substantial discretion to carry out and accomplish the goals of the Postal Service. As the Acknowledgement of Accountability, which each officer of the Postal Service signs, recognizes, “[i]individual managers enjoy considerable latitude witrh regard to funds and utilization.” Officers have the discretion to authorize expenditures when they are reasonable and in the interest of the Postal Service. The reasonableness of an officer’s expenmditures is highly dependent on the officer’s job responsibilities, the reason for the expenditure, the interest of the Postal Service, and the facts and circumstances surrounding the expenditure.” - page 13