Congress Weighs In on IGs

ongress has been marking the 20th anniversary of the Inspector General Act by taking a new look at the appropriate role of IGs, with some lawmakers hoping to improve the system with minor legislative changes. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, at press time planned to introduce legislation to boost efficiency and accountability within the IG community.

Collins, chairwoman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led the investigation of former Treasury IG Valerie Lau, who resigned earlier this year. The investigations subcommittee and the General Accounting Office found that Lau had violated federal contracting rules. Many regarded her as unqualified for the job. Collins hopes her bill will help prevent similar problem IG appointments in the future.

Among the changes Collins expected to propose were:

• Establish an IG term limit (five, seven or nine years), with an option to renew based on renomination, to encourage inspectors general to stay in their positions longer and give more continuity to their work.
• Require IG reporting annually rather than the current semiannually, and streamline report content to save money and focus on the most useful information. Congressional aides admit they rarely do more than skim the reams of IG reports that come in twice a year.
• Consolidate some smaller IG offices such as those for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Some of these IG shops have only a handful of staffers.

Paul Light, director of the public policy program at the Pew Charitable Trusts and author of a book on inspectors general, told Horn's subcommittee that any reform efforts should include more attention to measuring how well IGs are reducing the vulnerabilities of federal programs. "It's a body-count war that we're waging," Light said, referring to the annual IG tallies of financial recoveries and criminal prosecutions. In his view, until the amount of fraud, waste and abuse prevented at the source can be measured, it will remain difficult to conclude that IGs are having a positive impact.

Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala insists HHS has found a way to measure prevention. The slowing down of growth in programs' budgets-results of such things as closing loopholes-is one measure of reduced program vulnerabilities, she says.

Still, most observers agree that, while it's a worthy goal, measuring IG prevention of waste, fraud and abuse won't be easy. Not only is it hard to quantify the impact of preventive efforts, it's also hard to know who should get the credit: the agency or the IG.