While POGO also has “concerns regarding inherent structural and conceptual defects in the inspector general position” (though we have a sneaking suspicion our concerns may be very different) we are not weeping over Howard “Cookie” Krongard’s resignation announcement today as the Department of State’s Inspector General (IG), given the allegations raised about his leadership and conduct.
Congressman Harry Waxman’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee compiled a long list of examples from several current and former State Dept. IG employees about how Krongard blocked, white-washed, or repeatedly halted investigations.
Also, one would have little faith in an inspector general who claimed, under oath, in November to have no idea that his brother A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard was recently named to the Advisory Board of Blackwater Worldwide, a private security firm Krongard’s office was supposed to be investigating for human rights and contracting abuses in Iraq.
POGO has long emphasized the right balance of accountability and independence in the institution of IGs and believes in the old adage that they should be “as pure as Caesar’s wife.” Thus we find it rather odd that in his resignation letter to the White House, Krongard suggests that there is too much oversight, in that public servants such as himself are threatened by the level of “rancor and distrust” between political parties, the executive and legislative branch, the media and various interest groups.
-- Ingrid Drake
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