David Walker Sells Out
I’m obsessive about looking at my stats and the searches that bring people to my site. A few minutes ago, someone for the General Accounting Office Googled “David Walker Resigns.”
Well, here’s the scoop:
David M. Walker, head of the Government Accountability Office since 1998, is resigning to become president of a new $1 billion private research foundation, the GAO said Friday. Walker, 56, will step down as GAO comptroller general on March 12 to take over as president and chief executive officer of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.
Peterson, senior chairman of The Blackstone Group and former Commerce Department secretary, has pledged to contribute $1 billion over the next few years to the foundation, which is to focus on such national sustainability issues as entitlement program and health care costs, trade and budget deficits, energy consumption and the education system.
Blackstone and its cronies suck in another audit guy. It’s no wonder Mr. Walker presided over such an impotent set of non-action items in the GAO’s latest report on the “competitiveness” of the Big 4.
No way he’d upset the status quo.
How come no one asked why?
I don’t understand the rant concerning Walker. It is clear the guy was ready for a change after leading the GAO for almost 10 years – 1) he dislikes the current administration, 2) probably has grown tired of talking about the fiscal diaster the politicians have created (both parties), 3) as a GAO employee his salary is rather low when compared to what he could earn in the private sector.
I don’t like the fact he is leaving, because he seemed to be an honest broker when discussing the fiscal condition of the country.
There is no conspiracy here, just plain old capitalism at work. By the way, I really would not describe him as an auditor – his background has been either a gov’t employee or as a HR consultant. Also, I see no connection between Blackstone / Peterson and the auditing profession per se. If, however, Walker was hired by one of the Final Four auditing firms, then we would have something to your implied allegations.
David Walker worked at both AA and PW. See my post, http://retheauditors.blogspot.com/2007/03/meet-david-m-walker-comptroller-general.html, and any bio. Also see my post on the connection between Blackstone, Deloitte, and the former Chairman of Deloitte, http://retheauditors.blogspot.com/2007/06/deloittes-parrett-feeding-at-blackstone.html. Blackstone and Deloitte are very current administration friendly. So if Walker doesn’t like his current bosses as you say, he’ll only find more of the same, on steroids, at Blackstone. Blackstone is the one with something up its sleeve and so is co-opting any potential critics.
“Before his appointment as Comptroller General, Mr. Walker had extensive executive level experience in both government and private industry. Between 1989 and 1998, Mr. Walker worked at Arthur Andersen LLP, where he was a partner and global managing director of the human capital services practice based in Atlanta, Georgia. He was also a member of the board of Arthur Andersen Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor.
While a partner at Arthur Andersen, Mr. Walker served as a Public Trustee for Social Security and Medicare from 1990 to 1995. Before joining Arthur Andersen, Mr. Walker was Assistant Secretary of Labor for Pension and Welfare Benefit Programs from 1987 to 1989 and in 1985, was Acting Executive Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. His earlier technical, professional, and business experience was with Price Waterhouse, Coopers & Lybrand…