Contracting, lobbying reform top watchdog’s list of oversight priorities

The Project on Government Oversight’s “Baker’s Dozen” list of suggested legislative reforms also focused on empowering inspectors general and protecting private-sector whistleblowers.

POGO described the list as “a set of recommendations aimed at making the federal government more transparent, more accountable and more ethical. It’s a roadmap, if you will, that we believe could save taxpayers billions of dollars by reducing waste, fraud and abuse.”

Military issues surfaced in a number of POGO’s proposals, including one to “open the Senate markup process of the National Defense Authorization Act to the public” and another to stop wasteful national security spending.”

Pointing to the barrage of negative headlines concerning the Department of Veterans Affairs last year, POGO presented several ways Congress could reform the troubled agency.

“The cultural shift that is required inside the Department of Veterans Affairs must be accompanied by statutory mandates that protect whistleblowers and witnesses inside the agency from retaliation,” the watchdog group said. POGO also floated stricter reporting requirements that could “give a more accurate snapshot of where the delays are the worst.”

In addition, Freedom of Information Act reforms — which have already made progress in both the House and Senate after narrowly failing last year — earned a spot on the Baker’s Dozen lineup.

The other areas that warrant lawmakers’ attention, according to POGO, included:

— Stepping up oversight of the Office of Legal Counsel, whose rulings interpret federal law for the executive branch.

— Making sure taxpayers receive their “fair share” of returns for resources extracted from federal lands.

— Increasing transparency for lobbyists that represent foreign interests.

— Holding the Pentagon financially accountable for contracting.