Federal officials have failed to implement thousands of recommendations made by government watchdogs, and wasted $87 billion in the process, according to a new congressional report.
Seventy-two inspectors general – the independent watchdogs tasked with monitoring the executive branch – have made 15,222 recommendations that have not been implemented by the agencies they oversee over the last 15 years, according to a report from the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. As a result, those agencies have failed to save $87 billion targeted by the watchdogs.
“There is no excuse for this kind of waste,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who co-authored the report, said Monday. “My colleagues on the Appropriations Committees should cut the funding allocated to these agencies by the amount of the waste, given that the agencies could function effectively at a lower funding level by simply implementing the Inspector General recommendations.”
The report reflects over a year of investigating how agencies ignore or fight the inspectors general. Eight watchdogs complained to the lawmakers about “trouble accessing records” from the executive branch. “As reported by the IGs, agency obstruction tactics ranged from months-long drawn out delays to blatant refusals to provide certain categories of documents,” the report said.
The federal government was particularly unwilling to release documents pertaining to the bank and auto industry bailouts. “In the case of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Fund (SIGTARP), the SIGTARP had to resort to subpoenas and threats of subpoenas to obtain information about the use of Federal Troubled Asset Relief Fund,” the investigators learned.
Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson, who chairs the Homeland Security and Government Reform Committee, has proposed a suite of bills to increase the authority of the IGs.
“Our investigation highlights the numerous obstacles that many inspectors general have faced in trying to root out waste, fraud and abuse,” Johnson said. “I will continue to hold federal agencies accountable to implement common-sense recommendations to save taxpayer dollars, and will fight to pass our legislation that is critical to strengthening inspectors general.”
