Office of Inspector General (United States)

In the United States, other than in the military departments, the first Office of Inspector General was established by act of Congress in 1976[1] under the Department of Health and Human Services to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare, Medicaid, and more than 100 other departmental programs.[2] With approximately 1,600 employees, the HHS-OIG performs audits, investigations, and evaluations to recommend policy for decision-makers and the public.[3]

Ronald Reagan terminated 16 inspectors general when he entered into office in 1981. His administration explained that Reagan intended to hire his own selections. After Congress objected, Reagan rehired 5 of those terminated.[4]

George H. W. Bush also attempted to dismiss all the inspectors general when he became president in 1989, but relented after the inspectors general and Congress objected.[4]

Barack Obama dismissed Corporation for National and Community Service inspector general Gerald Walpin citing a lack of confidence in him.[4] After Congress objected to his lack of explanation, the Obama administration cited that Walpin had shown "troubling and inappropriate conduct", and pointed to an incident that year when Walpin was "disoriented" during a board meeting of the Corporation, because of which the board requested Walpin's dismissal.[4] Walpin sued for reinstatement, but the courts ruled against him.[4]

In 2020, Donald Trump dismissed or replaced five inspectors general within six weeks. Two permanent inspectors general were dismissed and three acting inspectors general were replaced.[5] Just after firing intelligence inspector general Michael Atkinson, Trump criticized Atkinson as having done a "terrible job" and that he "took a fake report and he brought it to Congress", in reference to the whistleblower complaint of the Trump–Ukraine scandal, which other testimony and evidence largely verified. Trump also described Atkinson as "not a big Trump fan".[6][7] Around one month before Trump replaced Christi Grimm as acting health inspector general, he had called her report of shortages of medical supplies in American hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States as "wrong", "fake", and "her opinion", despite the report being based on a survey of 323 hospitals. Trump also questioned Grimm's motives for the report.[8][9]

Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency logo

The Inspector General Act of 1978[10] created 12 departmental inspectors general. Thirty years later, in October 2008, the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008 added IGs in various other areas. As of July 2014, there were 72 statutory IGs.[11]

The offices employ special agents (criminal investigators, often armed) and auditors. In addition, federal offices of inspectors general employ forensic auditors, or "audigators", evaluators, inspectors, administrative investigators, and a variety of other specialists. Their activities include the detection and prevention of fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement of the government programs and operations within their parent organizations. Office investigations may be internal, targeting government employees, or external, targeting grant recipients, contractors, or recipients of the various loans and subsidies offered through the thousands of federal domestic and foreign assistance programs.[12] The Inspector General Reform Act of 2008[13] (IGRA) amended the 1978 act[10] by increasing pay and various powers and creating the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE).[14][15]

Example of an OIG report, from the DoD OIG[lower-alpha 1]

Some inspectors general, the heads of the offices, are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.[18] For example, both the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Labor and the inspector general of the U.S. Agency for International Development are presidentially appointed. The remaining inspectors general are designated by their respective agency heads,[19] such as the U.S. Postal Service inspector general.[20] Presidentially appointed IGs can only be removed, or terminated, from their positions by the President of the United States, whereas designated inspectors general can be terminated by the agency head.[21] However, in both cases Congress must be notified of the termination, removal, or reassignment.

While the IG Act of 1978[10] requires that inspectors general be selected based upon their qualifications and not political affiliation, presidentially appointed inspectors general are considered political appointees and are often selected, if only in part and in addition to their qualifications, because of their political relationships and party affiliation. An example of the role political affiliation plays in the selection of an inspector general, and the resulting pitfalls, can be seen in the 2001 Republican appointment (and resignation under fire) of Janet Rehnquist[22] (daughter of former Chief Justice of the United States, William Rehnquist) to the post of inspector general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.[23]

While all of the federal offices of inspectors general operate separately from one another, they share information and some coordination through the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency.[24] As of 2010, the CIGIE comprised 68 offices.[25] In addition to their inspector general members, the CIGIE includes non-inspector general representatives from the federal executive branch, such as executives from the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, the Office of Government Ethics, the Office of Special Counsel, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The CIGIE also provides specialized training to the inspector general community.

Further evidence of coordination between federal offices of inspectors general can be seen by the public through the offices' shared website,[26] and the use of shared training facilities and resources, such as the Inspector General Criminal Investigator Academy (IGCIA),[27] and their Inspector General Community Auditor Training Team (IGCATS),[28] which are hosted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC).

Evidence of the offices' return on investment to taxpayers can be seen through their semi-annual reports to Congress, most of which are available on each office's website.[29]

Since the post-9/11 enactment of the Homeland Security Act of 2002,[30] resulting in the amendment of the IG Act of 1978, Section 6e, most presidentially appointed IG special agents have had full law enforcement authority to carry firearms, make arrests, and execute search warrants. Prior to this time, most presidentially appointed IG and some designated IG special agents had the equivalent law enforcement authorities as a result of other statutes or annually required deputation by the U.S. Marshals Service. The 2002 amendment to the IG Act of 1978 made most deputation of presidentially appointed IG special agents unnecessary. Some designated IG special agents, however, still have full law enforcement authority today by virtue of this continued deputation. Some OIGs employ no criminal investigators and rely solely on administrative investigators, auditors, and inspectors.

HHS-OIG develops and distributes resources to assist the health care industry in its efforts to comply with the nation's fraud and abuse laws and to educate the public about fraudulent schemes so that it can protect itself and report suspicious activities.[2]

Recently, HHS-OIG has targeted hospitals and healthcare systems for Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute violations pertaining to the management of physician compensation arrangements.[85] In 2015, a fraud alert was issued to publicize the OIG's intent to further regulate such non-compliance.[86] In light of such efforts and consequent record-breaking settlements, healthcare experts have begun to call for the transition from paper-based physician time logging and contract management to automated solutions.[87]

Inspectors general have also been criticized for being ineffective and persecuting whistleblowers rather than protecting them. One example is from the Securities and Exchange Commission OIG. In a 2011 article by Matt Taibbi, SEC whistleblowers said that complaining to the SEC OIG was "well-known to be a career-killer".[88] Another example is from whistleblower Jesselyn Radack's book Canary in the Coalmine, in which she describes her experience complaining to the Department of Justice OIG; instead of helping her, the IG office helped the DOJ get her fired and restricted from practicing as a lawyer.[89] Another example is from the Thomas Andrews Drake case, in which several complainants to the Department of Defense OIG over NSA's Trailblazer Project were later raided by the FBI and some threatened with criminal prosecution.[90]

• Federal law enforcement in the United States
• 2020 dismissal of inspectors general

• Hilliard, Nadia (2017). The Accountability State: US Federal Inspectors General and the Pursuit of Democratic Integrity. Studies in Government and Public Policy. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 9780700623976. JSTOR j.ctt1p6qpbk. OCLC 1005678179.

• Official website
• Inspector General Vacancy Tracker by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency