By DANA LIEBELSON
The federal government's 62 Inspectors General (IGs) are putting your tax dollars to good use, returning about $18 for every dollar investment, according to a new report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
As part of the Dodd-Frank Act--legislation enacted in response to the 2008 financial meltdown--Congress required the GAO to report on the relative independence and efficiency of federal IGs. The result is a report released last week which shows that IGs save taxpayers billions of dollars, and provides hard evidence that the Dodd-Frank Act has increased their independence.
In the 2009 fiscal year, the IGs had an allotted budget of about $2.3 billion, but reported potential savings of about $43.3 billion. The IGs were also responsible for 5,900 actions against criminals, 1,100 civil actions, 4,460 suspensions and debarments and 6,100 indictments as a result of their work, according to the report.
The Dodd-Frank Act enacted several provisions for the watchdog offices that aligned with POGO’s past IG recommendations. For example, previously a single agency head could single-handedly remove an IG, potentially for political reasons. The Act made it so that a two-thirds majority of a board or commission was required for removal. The Act also required IGs to report to an entire commission, not just a lone chairman, and gave IGs additional independence by allowing them to request budget amounts separate from the agency budget.
The report shows how these recommendations ultimately played out, and the results have been positive. Of the 26 IGs directly affected by the Dodd-Frank provisions, 14 said that replacing a single chairman with a board increased their independence. As for the two-third vote rule, almost all the IGs said this improved their oversight capacity.
Interestingly, the IGs themselves may need more oversight, as POGO Twitter follower, @henrycobb pointed out. According to the report, although the Dodd-Frank Act requires the watchdogs to identify their budgets separately from their agencies, the GAO found that some IGs still weren’t doing so. After the GAO pointed this out to the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (the umbrella organization for the IGs), the Council agreed to “review and assess the matter.”
Dana Liebelson is POGO's Beth Daley Impact Fellow.
Follow @dliebelson
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