Not Exactly a Vote of Confidence

We are of course relieved that the federal criminal investigation of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) has been closed without any charges being filed against the head of the office, Stuart Bowen, or his deputy, Ginger Cruz.  At a bare minimum, we would hope that Inspectors General would always be above suspicion of having violated federal criminal law.  However, as Dan Friedman points out, there is still ongoing an administrative inquiry by Bowen's peers in the IG community, focusing on various allegations of inappropriate or unethical behavior, including "charges that Bowen wasted resources on a project to complete a book about Iraqi reconstruction."

While not prejudging the results of that inquiry, POGO clings to the belief that IGs must be above reproach and should be held accountable for how they conduct their business.  The public depends on their independence and objective assessment.  In Bowen's case, he has been accused of reckless spending and bad, even destructive management of his staff and office.  Danielle Brian has previously blogged on the Washington Post revelation that Bowen had not only countenanced substantial abuse of overtime rules by his staff members but also apparently committed it himself.

We really hope that the next IG will be held to a higher standard than not having been indicted.

-- Beverley Lumpkin

Comments

[Axel]

Overall this Article has my vote of confidence and especially the hopeful inference and/or reference that there are hopefully better days to follow within the future.

[Still a Stuart Bowen fan]

If it wasn't for Stuart Bowen, we wouldn't have a clue as to the extent of corruption in Iraq. A fair number of people would be delighted to see Bowen discredited and I refuse to get worked up about charges of "reported" abuse of overtime based on 'insider" information.

[KSBR disgusted]

Ms. Lumpkin,

Do you at POGO really want to make the presence or absence of "j'accuse!" your standard of probity? Em?

Where is your sense for due process and fairness? Ready, fire, aim, eh?

Sounds like pretty bad judgment. POGO shouldn't have to stoop so low to score points. Try again, or better yet, omit this criteria from the search for supportable conclusion on who's been bad and who's been good.