Federal watchdogs tasked with ferretting out waste within the government say the Obama administration has been obstructing their investigations – leaving billions of dollars vulnerable to fraud and abuse.
A group of 47 Inspectors General sent a letter to Congress last week detailing a handful of instances in which federal agencies have blocked their investigations by refusing to provide essential documents or critical access to relevant officials.
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“Refusing, restricting, or delaying an Inspector General’s access to documents leads to incomplete, inaccurate, or significantly delayed findings or recommendations, which in turn may prevent the agency from promptly correcting serious problems and deprive Congress of timely information regarding the agency’s performance,” the IGs wrote.
Just as the IGs were issuing their letter, a separate report revealed that U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officials have been blocking their auditors from investigating alleged widespread employee abuse of the agency’s telecommuting policy, The Washington Post reported.
Two years ago, investigators began probing into whistleblower complaints alleging that some of the 8,300 patent examiners repeatedly lied about the hours they were clocking in at home. Some examiners were even receiving federal bonuses for work they didn’t do. But the IGs’ investigation was slowed down by agency officials who refused to provide evidence of the fraud.
“The true extent of the problem was not being conveyed to us,” Commerce Department Inspector General Todd Zinser told The Post.
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The IGs’ letter to lawmakers last week described similar occurrences at other agencies.
At the Environmental Protection Agency, for example, the auditors said agency officials within the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board would not provide the documents required for an investigation, saying the attorney-client privilege trumped the statutorily mandated IG access to records. After intense pressure from the auditors, the agency eventually handed over the material.
Similarly, the Peace Corps refused to hand over records of sexual assaults against its volunteers to auditors. Under a special agreement, it allowed some of the records to be obtained; but access is still very limited.
The auditors’ letter to lawmakers included only a few examples but said the issues are not uncommon.
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“Other Inspectors General have, from time to time, faced similar obstacles to their work,” the watchdogs wrote. “Even when we are ultimately able to resolve these issues with senior agency leadership, the process is often lengthy, delays our work, and diverts time and attention from substantive oversight activities.”
In response to the letter, members of the House and Senate oversight committees sent a note to the Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan today raising concerns over the IGs’ limited access in some cases.
“We write to express our grave concern about difficulties that certain Inspectors General have encountered in trying to obtain documents from their respective agencies,” the lawmakers wrote. “Timely and complete access to information is essential if Inspectors General are to perform their missions.”
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