The IG Council has issued a guide to the role of internal agency watchdogs during the transition and moving forward into a new administration, saying “it is critical for each IG and the agency’s leadership to have regular and candid communications.”
Incoming leadership in particular should focus on IG reports describing the top management challenges at the agency, as well as the numerous reports on individual issues pointing the way to cost savings, efficiencies and program improvement, says the guide.
Longer-term, it recommends that senior leaders meet regularly with their IGs, which can inform them about ongoing work, the results of completed work, the status of open recommendations, and the scope and status of major investigations, it said.
Regarding the long-running disputes over agencies denying access to information that IGs believe they need to do their work, it says, “agency cooperation with the IG, including full access to agency information and employees, is essential for an IG to be effective.
“The new agency head should consider sending the agency workforce a message of support for the role of the OIG, emphasizing the duty of agency employees to cooperate with OIG audits, evaluations, and investigations; the OIG’s right of access to information; and each employee’s duty to report illegal conduct and suspected waste, fraud, and abuse to the IG. The tone of agency cooperation and support for the role of the IG is set from the top of an agency.”