Former DoD IG Eleanor Hill: Independence key to IG success

Fewer politically-appointed IGs isn\'t good for the agencies or the administration because it limits independence of the IGs.

From “Where Are the Watchdogs?” by John Solomon in The Center for Public Integrity:

“Faced with record deficits and expanding federal responsibilities, politicians from President Barack Obama on down routinely talk about the need for transparency and accountability in government. At the same time, though, they’ve left more than a dozen of the government’s top oversight jobs unfilled.

“At least 15 of the 73 inspectors general, chief auditors, or whistleblower protection jobs across government currently are vacant or are being covered by acting officials, according to a Center for Public Integrity review. Many of the openings have languished for a year or more.

“The State Department, for instance, has been without its chief watchdog since early 2008 when President George Bush’s inspector general appointee resigned after a controversy involving investigations into spending in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“It’s not a good thing that we don’t have a number of appointed IGs in place at this point,” says Eleanor Hill, former Inspector General at the Defense Department and now a partner at King & Spalding. “But it is not terribly unusual. We have had, over the years in a number of administrations…long periods of time without a confirmed, presidentially appointed IG at a particular department or agency.”

The holdups that apply to the confirmation process in general also are true for the IG appointment and confirmation process. But Ms. Hill says calls for fewer politically-appointed IGs and more chosen from the career ranks of the agencies isn’t the answer.

“The problem with career IGs in agencies is that they’re appointed by the agencies. They answer to those agencies. It’s very difficult at times for a career IG who is not appointed by a president and confirmed by the US Senate to stand up and take issue with their agency on something, when they’re in fact working for that agency. During my tenure at DoD…there were a number of IGs at Defense agencies that I oversaw that were below me in rank and did not have that statutory independence. There were many times when those IGs would call me and say, ‘we have an issue here with our agency, we want to look at it, but we don’t have the independence to look at it. I think you should look at it…’, and we would do that.”

You can hear my entire conversation with Eleanor Hill by clicking the audio link.

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