-----Original Message----- From: Catherine Austin Fitts [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, June 15, 2001 6:42 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: FW: Article on IG's; Mentions HUD OIG -----Original Message----- From: Catherine Austin Fitts [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, June 15, 2001 6:38 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Cushing N. Dolbeare [[EMAIL PROTECTED]]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Article on IG's; Mentions HUD OIG The Atlanta Journal and Constitution June 13, 2001 Wednesday, Home Edition Who shall inspect the inspectors general? Congress weighs acts of federal watchdogs BY JULIA MALONE Cox Washington Bureau Washington --- More than two decades after Congress set up a network of investigators to attack waste and corruption inside the federal government, new questions have arisen about who is watching the federal watchdogs. Nearly 60 inspectors general now work in federal departments and agencies. They track down abuses, from food stamp cheating to fraud involving billion-dollar weapons contracts. But in some cases, inspector general officials have been caught doing what they are supposed to prevent. The Defense Department's inspector general's office is now under investigation for allegedly re-creating financial records for an audit shortly before the documents were reviewed by an outside auditor last year. As described by an internal Pentagon report, the apparent fabrication required a dozen staffers to work long hours, including overtime, at a personnel cost of $63,000. The alleged deception might never have been detected except for an anonymous whistle-blower who notified officials, including a longtime critic of government waste, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). "It's a very sad day indeed when the watchdog gets caught cheating," Grassley wrote late last month to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "If the IG ( inspector general) can't be trusted, then we are in trouble. Who can we trust?" The Pentagon case has hit the watchdogs especially hard. "You have the IG office that's supposed to be an office of high integrity," said Gaston Gianni Jr., vice chairman of the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, which loosely oversees their diverse IG operations and is investigating the Defense Department case. "This certainly casts a negative light on the concept, and it hurts all of us," said Gianni, who also serves as inspector general for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The Pentagon case is the latest sign of problems inside the network of federal overseers. Among other examples: Former Commerce Department inspector general Francis DeGeorge pleaded guilty last year to a misdemeanor after admitting he negotiated for a job with a company that was a contractor with the agency's National Weather Service. Such conflict-of-interest violations are among the most common issues investigated by IGs. At the Treasury Department, inspector general Valerie Lau stepped down in 1998 after a report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, concluded that she had awarded a $90,000 consulting contract to a longtime associate without putting the work up for bids. That same contractor had earlier recommended her to the Clinton White House for the IG job. And the IG's office at the Department of Housing and Urban Development has become ensnared in controversies that have affected its oversight of HUD, which has been ranked among the most wasteful agencies in government for the better part of two decades. The General Accounting Office, which serves as the investigating arm of Congress, is expected to release findings next week on whether the IG police force conflicts with the central mission of the IG. The investigation was requested by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) Some lawmakers have called for a more systematic way to review all IG offices. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has drafted legislation for independent reviews of each IG every three years, but the legislation has failed to win passage. She said she would reintroduce her bill this year. LOAD-DATE: June 13, 2001
