Article 52.  Establishment of a Government Wide United States Inspector Generals Office

This proposal establishes a US Inspector Generals office with all departmental Inspector Generals' Offices reporting to it. It would eliminate the biased control by Departmental bureaucrats and allow OIG's the freedom to investigate fraud and waste. 

Proposed by Lawrence Rosier Reform Consultant 
April 8, 2014.
Over the years US Government Bureaucracies have developed means for protecting themselves while appearing to be doing the right thing to the public. Currently all major Departments of the Federal Government have their own Inspector General offices to conduct audits and make reports and recommendations to their specific Department Heads. There are 73 federal offices of inspectors general, a significant increase since the statutory creation of the initial 12 offices by the Inspector General Act of 1978. The offices employ special agents (criminal investigators, often armed) and auditors. In addition, federal offices of inspectors general employ forensic auditors, or evaluators, inspectors, administrative investigators, and a variety of other specialists. Their activities include the detection and prevention of fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement of the government programs and operations within their parent organizations. These are self investigating organizations the primary reason that waste leading to budget cuts seldom occur.

The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) was created in 1978 with the current acting Inspector General, Mary Kendall head of the Council.  But with the thousands of instances of reported waste the US Government "Departmental Inspector General" approach appears to be flawed.  For example in March 2013 the GAO released a 345 page study of US Government duplicated services. 

A problem arises from conflict of interest between a Department's Inspector Generals office and the Department head it reports to, where waste of government funds are concerned and especially where reduced budgets are the result of the Inspector General's recommendations. There appears to be no single organization in the US Federal Government with a free hand for fixing government waste problems leading to reduced budgets and smaller government.

Therefore I am making the following recommendation for the establishment of a United States Inspectors General Office with all Departmental Inspectors Generals reporting directly to this office and not to their current Department offices.    I further recommend that the Office of Management and Budget  (OMB) be the Home for this organization.  The  US Inspector General would report directly to the OMB.  All Department Inspector Generals offices will remain in their current locations within each US Government Department. The enhanced powers of the OMB provides for a single organization with the express powers for finding and eliminating Government Waste.

The mandate for this organization is to empower all Inspector General offices to not only conduct audits and make recommendations within their respective Departments but to stop waste by disbanding and confiscation the budgets of wasteful government operations.  This includes duplicated government services and services which are ineffective and can not meet an “Effectiveness Test” relative to their budgets,  producing results that satisfies their customers.  The burden of proof of effectiveness shall be the responsibility of the government service in question.

The newly appointed USOIG shall implement a special training operation to achieve uniform audit and procedural policies as well as bringing all Inspector General’s offices up to date in the following new and innovative technologies.

A. Lean Six Sigma
Lean Six Sigma, adapted to DOD operations by the Military is the number one tool of choice for streamlining high level hardware deployment systems.  This tool can be applied to any high level system especially for systems that operate across organizational boundaries.

B. The General reform Model developed by Lawrence Rosier Reform Consultant
The “General Reform Model” is a step by step approach leading to the highest efficiency and effectiveness of subsystems which tie into the high level systems of the Lean Six Sigma studies.  This model is meant to be applied agency by agency, first fixing the subsystems using Enterprise Lean followed by right-sizing the Agency with the proper staffing required with a transparent budget.  The process ends by changing the bureaucratic organization to a Team Managed organization (Team Managed organizations have shown that they reduce fraud and corruption through peer pressure and protection of Whistle Blowers).

C. The Consolidation Model Developed by Lawrence Rosier Principal Consultant
The “Consolidation Model” consolidates duplicated government services into a single streamlined organization.  A tool which I have developed and used in the Consolidation Model is the “Effectiveness Test” which OIG Analysts can use to confront an organization’s services to determine if the services meet the requirements of its public customers.  With failure to meet its customer requirements, relative to the size of its budget, the OIG is empowered by Congress (legislation needed) to disband the ineffective service and confiscate its budget.  The use of these tools should be a part of the proposed legislation.


U S Inspector General Duties within the OMB

The establishment of the United States Office of the Inspector General shall be within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 
1. Conduct and supervise audits consistent with generally accepted government auditing standards and investigations relating to all Departments of the US Government.
2.  Provide solutions and supervise the elimination of government waste.
3.  Provide leadership and coordination and recommend policies, to promote economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in the US Government.
4.  Keep the President's staff fully informed concerning fraud and other serious problems, abuses, and deficiencies relating to the administration of programs and operations of the US Government.