From: Coal Tattoo

March 8, 2011 by Ken Ward Jr.

Republican leaders in the House Education and Workforce Committee aren’t finished grilling MSHA chief Joe Main over the audit reports that Main has so far refused to make public regarding his agency’s failings.

Yesterday, Committee Chairman John Kline, R-Minn., wrote this letter to Main, asking that MSHA turn over a variety of documents about the agency’s secretive Office of Accountability. Kline asked for:

– A copy of all reports, audits and post-audit reports generated by the Office of Accountability since that office was established in 2007.

– A description and explanation of MSHA’s policy related to the public availability of audits and post-audit reports generated by the Office of Accountability.

– A description of the planning process currently underway at the Department of Labor to restructure MSHA and/or systematically remedy and improve MSHA’s internal management, including, but not limited to, a description of the personnel involved in such planning, the timeline for the planning process, and any interim conclusions reached during the planning process.

– All documents related to or referencing plans to restructure and/or systematically remedy or improve MSHA’s internal management during your tenure.

How long will Joe Main continue to treat these audits as some sort of secret squirrel documents that the public doesn’t have a right to see? Does anyone who knows Joe really believe what he said during a press conference last week — that, when he was the UMWA safety director, he wouldn’t have demanded that records like this be made public?