More than two dozen staffers from the office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction were among the 85 individuals and groups whose service was recognized during the 17th annual Inspectors General Community awards ceremony.
The Council on Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, a watchdog group whose members come from IG offices across the government, honored SIGAR special agent Jeffrey Millslagle at its ceremony with the Sentner Award for courage for his dedication to duty during an insurgent attack on the consulate in which he was working in September 2013.
The Sentner Award was named for William “Buddy” Sentner III, a special agent in the Justice Department’s IG office who was killed in action in 2006.
Four other groups within SIGAR won awards for their oversight of the $103 billion the government has spent on Afghan reconstruction since 2002.
IG personnel from the Justice Department, Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Homeland Security received a joint award for their work on a collaborative review of the government’s handling of information leading up to the Boston Marathon bombing.
The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the watchdog arm charged with monitoring bank bailout activities, also earned recognition for its oversight. SIGTARP staff took home an audit award and two investigation awards, one of which honored a probe of the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch merger that netted $20 billion in fraudulently obtained TARP funds.
CIGIE bestowed its highest honors on the IG team dedicated to reviewing the Department of Justice’s witness security program, which handles known or suspected terrorists.
James Comey, director of the FBI, delivered the keynote address at the watchdog ceremony, which CIGIE hosted.
