Bill would give IGs fixed terms, personnel flexibilities

Agency inspectors general would serve 7-year terms and receive more flexibility in hiring and paying their employees under legislation a House lawmaker plans to introduce next week.

Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., will introduce a bill that aims to strengthen the independence of the government watchdogs, who currently can be removed by the president at any time. Cooper's bill would only allow the president to fire IGs before their terms expire for specific reasons, such as permanent disability, malfeasance or neglect of duty.

"While it does not happen often, IGs have occasionally been dismissed because of their views or because of an embarrassing audit or report," Cooper said Wednesday at a House Government Reform subcommittee hearing on the 1978 Inspector General Act.

The bill would also "revamp hiring procedures and bring them in line with current personnel practices at [the General Accounting Office]," Cooper said. Congress granted GAO temporary authority three years ago to offer early retirement and buyout incentives to its employees.

Paul Light, director of the Brookings Institution's Center for Public Service, said IGs "are having a lot of trouble, like everyone else, recruiting investigators and auditors." Federal pay just can't compete with the salaries offered by top-level accounting firms, he said.

During Wednesday's hearing, the inspector general of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, said the IG community was considering a proposal for more personnel flexibilities, including creating pay-banding and merit-based pay systems; new performance management measures; and early retirement authority.

"We note that the GAO and Homeland Security Department have been provided with additional personnel authorities designed to improve human capital management at those entities," said FDIC IG Gaston Gianni Jr. Gianni is also the vice chairman of the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, an umbrella organization for IGs.

But Light noted that IGs face deeper problems than just recruiting and retaining employees. "Their relations with [the Office of Management and Budget] and their role in the president's management agenda, near as I can tell, is negligible," he said.

"IGs have a special position that would allow you to take a greater look at where the [management agenda] PMA is being implemented, but the White House would have to accept their judgment, and that quasi-independence makes the White House nervous. I can't imagine it happening."

But Gianni and OMB Deputy Director for Management Clay Johnson said IGs have played-and will continue to play-a key role in implementing the management agenda. "We in the executive branch have as much at stake in their objectivity as you [members of Congress] do," Johnson said at the hearing. "I want to know that an IG's opinion and advice are reliable and true. But that does not mean IGs cannot work constructively with agency management to identify potential problems and solutions."

The 1978 Inspector General Act created independent audit and investigative offices in 12 federal agencies to end the practice of auditors reviewing the same programs they worked on. Currently, there are 57 inspectors general, 29 of whom serve at the largest federal agencies as political appointees confirmed by the Senate. Twenty-eight agencies, including the Postal Service and the National Science Foundation, have the authority to appoint their own inspectors general without Senate confirmation.