Just this morning, POGO recommended 12 nonpartisan good-government fixes that Congress should implement in 2010.
Coming
in at #1 is enacting increased whistleblower protections — a reform
that we feel is both most urgent and achievable. Whistleblowers play an
invaluable role in the fight against waste, fraud, and abuse, but
too often are retaliated against for exposing wrongdoing. Members of
the House have put together a bipartisan bill that would strengthen
protections, but it has yet to progress beyond the House Committee on
Homeland Security, where it was referred to almost a year ago.
Loyal POGO readers might notice a new item at #2: creating an independent audit agency. It's critical that we enable auditors to do their best as the first line of defense against fraud, waste, and abuse. Sadly, as we explain in our full list of recommendations, "investigations into the General Services Administration (GSA), Minerals Management Service (MMS) at the Department of the Interior, and the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) have found that auditors lack the independence from their agencies they need to effectively do their jobs."
Here's the full list of our recommendations:
- Pass Whistleblower Protection Law
- Create an Independent Audit Agency
- Improve Economic Recovery Efforts
- Put the Teeth Back in Financial Regulatory Agencies
- Uncover the Hidden Costs of Privatizing Government
- Ensure Taxpayers Get Their Fair Share of Revenues from Royalty Collection
- Increase Government Accountability and Transparency
- End Wasteful Defense Spending
- Make Government Watchdog Organizations More Accountable
- Drag the Nuclear Complex Out of the Cold War, and Ensure Oversight of Lab Contractors
- Disclose Conflicts of Interest in Scientific Research
- And of Course: Fix the Broken Federal Contracting System
You can read more about each recommendation here. We'll be keeping track of the government's progress towards these goals, so check back in for more on that later.
-- Bryan Rahija
Further reading: POGO's 2007 Baker's Dozen of Suggested Congressional Oversight Priorities
POGO's 12 ways to make Government even larger than it is.
Good lord - what's wrong with you people?
Posted by: 10lizy | Feb 17, 2010 at 08:35 AM