Obama's IG Scandals Deepen: House Opens Investigation : Indybay

Former St. Louis Detective Patrick McFarland must have been surprised the day he discovered his budget for operations as Inspector General of the US Office of Personnel Management would be reduced by President Barack Obama, who continues to promise a new era of transparency in government.

Ultimately, the dirty job of trying to promote clean and effective government falls on the shoulders of the Inspector General. Each major division of the US bureaucracy is assigned an independent office to guard against waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement. McFarland has performed this function for the OPM for 22 years, under 4 presidents.

According to Ed Towns and Stephen Lynch of the House Oversight Committee, The IG Act provides that:

"any comments of [an] affected Inspector General" shall be included in the budget of the United States Government submitted to Congress if the Inspector General concludes that the budget would "substantially inhibit" him from performing his duties.

and...

IG McFarland alleges that OPM received a "not so veiled threat from OMB" that if the IG exercised its statutory authority to advise Congress that the proposed budget was inadequate, OMB "will make life miserable" for the OPM IG.

The complaint was received by Stephen Lynch, who chairs the subcommittee for oversight of employees of the Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia. He is joined by committee chair Towns in a formal request for an investigation by Obama's budget director, Peter Orzag. (linked above). When the Inspector General Reform Act was passed in 2008, it was a major victory for Democrats who wanted to insure the budgetary independence of IGs, because the very people they investigate have recently cut their budget as retaliation in recent years. Edolphus Towns, a long established Democrat from Brooklyn intends to protect this victory, and expects an answer from Orzag by January 22nd.

The press release from Towns and Lynch follows:

Towns, Lynch Open Investigation into Alleged Misconduct by the Office of Management and Budget

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Contact: Oversight and Government Reform Press Office, (202) 225-5051

Chairman Towns and Subcommittee Chairman Lynch Open Investigation Into Alleged Misconduct by the Office of Management and Budget

OPM IG reports threats by OMB that may violate the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008

WASHINGTON – Chairman Edolphus "Ed" Towns (D-NY) and Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia Subcommittee Chairman Stephen Lynch today announced that the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform opened an investigation into a potential violation of the Inspector General (IG) Reform Act of 2008. Earlier today Chairman Towns and Subcommittee Chairman Lynch received information that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) may have taken actions to undermine the budgetary independence that Congress provided to Inspectors General in the IG Reform Act of 2008.
In a letter from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) IG Patrick McFarland, he writes, "I am alerting you about a very serious matter that represents an attempt to thwart an authority provided to us by the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008 and that creates a risk of compromising our operational independence."
At issue is a section in the IG Act regarding budgets for Inspectors General. The provision provides that "any comments of [an] affected Inspector General" shall be included in the budget of the United States Government submitted to Congress if the Inspector General concludes that the budget would "substantially inhibit" him from performing his duties.
IG McFarland alleges that OPM received a "not so veiled threat from OMB" that if the IG exercised its statutory authority to advise Congress that the proposed budget was inadequate, OMB "will make life miserable" for the OPM IG.
Both Chairman Towns and Subcommittee Chairman Lynch are strong supporters of the IG Reform Act of 2008, and the independence and authority of Inspectors General. Therefore, they are committed to thoroughly investigating this alleged incident. Today, they sent letters to OMB Director Peter Orszag and Phyllis K. Fong, the chairwoman of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), requesting immediate action to help the Committee in its investigation.
In a letter to OMB Director Orszag, he is asked to conduct an internal review of the allegations involving OPM. The Committee is also reviewing whether the allegations at OPM are isolated or part of a larger pattern. Therefore, Towns and Lynch asked Chairwoman Fong to survey CIGIE members to determine whether any similar threats have been communicated to them, and report the results of the survey to the Committee. Both letters ask for reports no later than January 22, 2010.
"If such statements were made they were entirely improper and pose a direct threat to the independence and integrity of Inspectors General, and an affront to clear Congressional intent as expressed in statute," said Towns and Lynch.
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The original complaint from IG McFarland follow below as a pdf., and here's a link to his official government website.

David Roknich
Editor,

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