House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul this week criticized the leadership of the U.S. Agency for Global Media for what he said was a cover-up of an investigation of a Voice of America executive who lied about her education credentials and abused her authority. The Texas Republican said top agency leaders should be held accountable.
“Senior leadership at USAGM damages agency morale and public trust when it pretends the recent investigative findings reached by its own personnel — after years of prodding by my committee — do not exist,” Mr. McCaul said in a statement circulated Wednesday.
Agency for Global Media Chief Executive Amanda Bennett should issue a public apology to the government whistleblowers whose complaints were falsely denied by agency leadership for years, he said.
“The bureaucracy at USAGM must be reformed so that vetting of foreign nationals and credentials is done thoroughly and comprehensively, as I’ve already called for,” Mr. McCaul said. “It should not take years of congressional engagement for the agency to acknowledge hiring and firing processes are not what they should be.”
The committee released a transcribed interview with Setareh Sieg, a Voice of America executive, that was conducted after what the panel said was “more than six months of stonewalling by USAGM and Ms. Sieg.”
A committee report from June concluded that the agency was guilty of fostering what Mr. McCaul described as a “culture of corruption and mismanagement.”
The report outlined fabrications on Ms. Sieg’s resume, including the false claim she received an advanced degree from France’s Sorbonne. Ms. Sieg is director of program review at the Voice of America and formerly headed its Persian News Network.
She was fired during the Trump administration and brought back to the Voice of America during the Biden administration.
The committee said Agency for Global Media failed to conduct a thorough investigation of Ms. Sieg’s false credentials and her abuse of authority at the Voice of America, despite the panel’s request for an inquiry.
“The committee’s investigation showed Ms. Sieg allowed her preferred employees to collect excessive overtime pay, showed a pattern of favoritism, faced persistent complaints from subordinates due to her abrasive leadership style, and mishandled at least one major programming contract,” the committee said.
Voice of America leaders eventually filed a formal reprimand of Ms. Sieg, yet Ms. Bennett continues to ignore the findings of investigators and still defends her, the committee said.
“Despite the formal reprimand, Ms. Sieg refuses to accept the findings of USAGM, the committee, the French Embassy, and the Foreign Credential Services of America that she does not have a French doctorate, referring to the assessments as mere ’opinions,’” the committee said.
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• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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