Written By Parker Riley
Katrina Hubbard spoke out about corruption.
At this point, Ben Carson is a national embarrassment. The scandals at the Department of Housing and Urban Development are endless. Last month, he was accused in a lawsuit by Helen Foster of demoting her for not approving extravagant office renovations. Then, Marcus Smallwood, the department’s director of records, wrote an email to Carson and other top officials, which was shared with The Guardian and read, “Helen Foster is not the only person at HUD that has been persecuted in this witch-hunt under your watch… She is the only person who has been brave enough to stand on principle and put her career, reputation, and livelihood on the line. The rest of us have operated in fear.”
We also can’t forget nearly $200,00 in office renovations, accusations of his family being too involved at HUD, emails proving he has lied and reports of Carson using taxpayer money for private planes. Now, The Guardian is reporting, Katrina Hubbard, an executive assistant and one of the few Black people who worked at HUD, was fired for reporting possible corruption and “misuse of public funds.” Hubbard told The Guardian, “I reported information about fraud, waste and abuse, and as a result I was retaliated against.”
The Guardian reported Hubbard “became a civil servant at HUD in September last year and worked as executive assistant to Johnson Joy, Hud’s chief information officer.” In addition, ” she discovered that Accel Corporation, a contractor that supplies Joy’s office with staff, was being systematically overpaid. Some Accel subcontractors were falsely classed in higher pay grades, she said, while some billed for days and hours they had not worked. Naved Jafry, one Accel subcontractor, resigned from the department recently after the Guardian found he exaggerated his biography and had been repeatedly sued for fraud. Hubbard said she told Hud’s inspector general of her findings on 8 January this year.”
Hubbard claimed over two days, Joy and deputy chief information officer Kevin Cooke “held a pair of meetings that appeared on their schedules as ‘classified issue,’ according to screenshots taken by Hubbard. On the third day, Hubbard said, she received a memo telling her that she was being reassigned from her job. Less than a month later, she was fired.” She was allegedly fired because of performance issues but Katrina Hubbard insists there were no performance issues. Hubbard filed a complaint to a federal whistleblower agency, which is now being investigated by the office of special counsel (OSC), an office that oversees federal workers’ employment rights.
How despicable that this is how Ben Carson and his team runs HUD. Too many lawsuits, overspending and being caught in lies. Why is this man still employed?
