A bipartisan Senate proposal would require the State Department to notify its inspector general of all allegations of misconduct in an effort to improve oversight at the embattled agency.
Sens. David Perdue, R-Ga., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., included the amendment on the State Department Authorization bill Tuesday in the wake of revelations that the State Department’s watchdog has been vulnerable to agency influence in recent years.
Perdue, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s subcommittee for State Department management, blasted the lack of independence that has characterized the agency’s inspector general.
“The State Department has been plagued with problems, and it’s ridiculous that the State [Office of Inspector General] does not have autonomy to investigate wrongdoing within the department,” Perdue told the Washington Examiner. ” An independent OIG that is actually allowed to do its job is a necessary requirement in fixing a State Department that badly needs reform.”
Steven Linick, who has served as the State Department’s permanent inspector general since he was confirmed by the Senate in September 2013, testified before the subcommittee in April that his office struggled to uncover allegations of wrongdoing.
Linick said the “No. 1” issue for his office was “our ability to get early notification of misconduct involving serious or criminal activity, and our ability to investigate that, at least decide whether we are going to investigate that, and return it back to the department.”
President Obama nominated Linick to fill the inspector general’s office after it had sat empty for more than five years in what was then the longest such vacancy in the history of any federal agency.
Critics say his predecessor, Harold Geisel, lacked independence and allowed information that was damaging to State Department officials to be removed from his reports.
The Examiner reported Monday that early drafts of a 2013 inspector general audit conducted under Geisel’s watch contained language that suggested Clinton’s top aides may have blocked diplomatic security investigations.
The language was removed before the final version of the report was published in February of that year.
