Washington DC photographed from Marine One Photo: White House Flickr
The White House has issued updated guidance to heads of US federal departments and executive agencies urging them to better co-operate better with watchdogs.
In a memorandum published earlier this month, Shalanda Young and Jason Miller, who serve as acting director and deputy director of the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) respectively, highlighted concerns that executive branch agencies had not provided their inspectors general (IGs) with the full cooperation and access they should be provided by law.
“As leaders of your respective agencies, you and your staff have an obligation to co-operate with your respective IG offices as they fulfil their statutory responsibilities under the IG [Inspector General] Act,” they said.
The IG Act gives inspectors general special powers to perform independent audits and investigations that promote the “economy, efficiency, and effectiveness” of federal agencies and “prevent and detect fraud and abuse” in their programmes and operations. There are currently around 73 IGs working across the US government.
However, under the presidency of Donald Trump there were attempts to undermine the independence of inspectors general, as well as the Government Accountability Office and congressional oversight.
In his term as president, Trump also sacked a state department inspector for investigating then secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and replaced an inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services for publishing a report showing that hundreds of medical centres had struggled to obtain supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, the Trump administration also attacked whistleblowers, raising concerns about protections. One whistleblower was targeted in 2020 for disclosing a phone call in which Trump allegedly asked Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former US vice president and presidential campaign rival Joe Biden and Biden’s son, Hunter.
The OMB’s latest guidance draws on findings from a review published in August by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), which found that many agency leaders had not communicated the IG’s role to staff, or their expectations around engagement.
Young and Miller stressed that addressing these issues was vital to ensuring the timely completion of audits and investigations and upholding IGs’ authority.
“It is the president’s expectation that executive departments and agencies will restore and respect the integrity and independence of their respective agency inspectors general and work with the Congress to ensure that IG offices can exercise their vital oversight role,” they said.
Re-establishing authority
The guidance advised agencies to meet routinely with IGs for candid conversations, which it said could “reduce the risk…
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