Punishments stemming from IG probes on the rise

Suspensions and debarments resulting from inspector general actions nearly doubled in 2005, and personnel actions rose more than 40 percent, according to a report released Tuesday by two IG groups.

Suspensions and debarments, which are proceedings to exclude parties from federal contracts, grants, loans and other transactions, rose 97 percent in fiscal 2005 to 9,918 from 5,045 the previous year, the report from the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency and the Executive Council on Integrity and Efficiency stated. Those groups are composed of presidentially appointed and agency-appointed inspectors general, respectively.

Personnel actions including reprimands, suspensions, demotions and firings of government, contractor and grantee employees increased to 2,819 in 2005, from 1,989 the previous year.

Marilyn Richardson, liaison for the PCIE vice chairman, said the increases did not necessarily indicate a spike in malfeasance compared with the year before, noting that some proceedings can take more than a year to complete. But "the OIGs have been more aggressive," she said. Richardson declined to elaborate on the agency breakdown of the figures or the areas in which the offices had concentrated.

In addition to the suspensions and debarments, the report noted that 57 IG offices secured $20 billion in 2005 in potential savings from audit recommendations and investigative recoveries.

That amounted to $15.7 billion in funds that agency managers agreed could be put to better use, according to the recommendations of their IG offices, and $4.3 billion in payments from investigations with IG involvement. Those figures represented funds agreed to in fiscal 2005, but included funding and payments stemming from old investigations that were finalized in 2005.

Savings based on new recommendations amounted to $13.9 billion in 2005, a 6.7 percent drop from the $14.9 billion newly identified in 2004. New receivables and recoveries came to $1.5 billion, above the $90 million recovered the previous year.

IG offices completed 7,703 successful prosecutions in 2005, in which a subject was convicted or made a pretrial agreement with the Justice Department. That marked a 19 percent increase over 2004. They also obtained 6,847 criminal indictments and complaints resulting from their activities, a slight rise over the 6,231 cases in 2004. The number of successful civil actions resulting from OIG activities fell slightly in 2005 to 551, from 594 the previous year.

Although the inspectors general provided little explanation of changes in performance, the report said the community had focused considerable attention on the government's recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast region. Auditors flooded into the area shortly after Hurricane Katrina struck last year, but agencies still were sharply criticized by Congress for costly oversight failures.

The report said auditors also focused on counterterrorism measures, including efforts to assist the Office of Management and Budget in developing compliance guidelines for the 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act.

In presenting the report, Greg Friedman, PCIE vice chairman and inspector general for the Energy Department, and Barry Snyder, ECIE vice chairman and inspector general of the Federal Reserve Board, said, "The 11,600 people of the PCIE and ECIE remain committed to addressing future challenges facing the federal government and to continuing our record of service to the people of this nation."