Pubdate: Fri, 07 Jul 2000 Source: Sacramento Bee (CA) Copyright: 2000 The Sacramento Bee Contact: P.O.Box 15779, Sacramento CA 95852 Feedback: http://www.sacbee.com/about_us/sacbeemail.html Website: http://www.sacbee.com/ Forum: http://www.sacbee.com/voices/voices_forum.html Author: Michael Doyle, Bee Washington Bureau DRUG CZAR'S DRIVEN STYLE COMES UNDER FIRE IN AUDIT WASHINGTON -- The hard-charging former Army general who's overseeing American anti-drug efforts is a relentless taskmaster whose overworked office has suffered disturbingly high turnover, auditors say in a sobering new report released Thursday. Drug czar Barry McCaffrey, whose responsibilities include a new multimillion-dollar campaign targeting the Central Valley's covert methamphetamine trade, comes under sustained fire in the highly detailed audit ordered by Congress. The criticism includes suggestions that McCaffrey's staff at the Office of National Drug Control Policy is stretched too thin to properly oversee programs like the one under way in Sacramento and eight other Central Valley counties. "Conflicts, high stress levels and demanding conditions have yielded a difficult work environment," said auditors with PriceWaterhouseCoopers. "The workload situation has become problematic, given the unfilled positions associated with recruitment and retention problems." While praising the drug office's "effective and results-oriented manner" in meeting external responsibilities, the auditors lambasted the office's internal operations. The auditors specifically cited the 68 percent staff turnover during McCaffrey's tenure and the challenges posed by rapid growth of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program. McCaffrey had his staffers counter the 55-page audit with their own 12-page response. "They kind of missed the boat in terms of understanding what happens here," drug office spokesman Bob Weiner said Thursday. McCaffrey's staff cited alleged "errors of fact, serious omissions or contradictions" in the audit report. Congress ordered the audit last year after lawmakers said they were "dismayed" that McCaffrey kept asking for more workers despite the high attrition rate on his staff. The Central Valley region from Sacramento County south to Kern County is one of 31 regions nationwide identified for special funding and coordination assistance under the HIDTA program. Lawmakers like the program, and it has grown from five regions costing $25 million in 1990 to the 31 regions costing about $192 million now. However, while the number of HIDTA regions has doubled during McCaffrey's four years as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the program's budgets are still managed by only two financial officers. "Thus, the workload has been handled through an increase in the 'operational tempo' of the organization in order to gain more results from existing resources," auditors said. Auditors consider this particularly troublesome both because of the danger of oversight mistakes and because so many other staffers are devoted to supporting McCaffrey's intensive public outreach. A West Point graduate and commanding public speaker who retired as a four-star general, McCaffrey spends about one-quarter of his time giving various interviews, speeches and public appearances. Auditors estimated he makes 386 public appearances a year -- more than one a day. Auditors contend that this has taken up so much staff time that "there has been an erosion in (the office's) ability to conduct its primary objectives." Bill Ruzzamenti, the Fresno-based director of the Central Valley HIDTA, acknowledged the drug office staff has seemed overworked and potentially subject to burnout, but he stressed that they are also highly capable. "They are incredibly responsive," Ruzzamenti said. "They get back to you very quickly. They are overworked, but it has not in any way jeopardized their ability to do their job." McCaffrey's allies, moreover, note that intensive travel and public speaking are an integral part of his job's bully pulpit. Until McCaffrey assumed the drug czar's job, first established over President Reagan's objections in 1988, congressional Republicans had delighted in calling President Clinton "AWOL on drugs." McCaffrey will be making his first swing by the Central Valley HIDTA on July 15, when he will meet with regional law enforcement officers. The Valley's anti-methamphetamine effort is receiving $1.4 million this year through the drug office program; it is considered a big boost by Valley police, though it is only a small part of the government's $18 billion anti-drug program supervised by McCaffrey. "Gen. McCaffrey is a committed public servant who believes deeply in the mission and who gives his all, and he expects those around him to do the same," said former California Democratic Assemblyman Tom Umberg, who served about 30 months as McCaffrey's deputy. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D