Agency Oversight

  • On this week's On DoD, John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, says the role of an IG is to effectuate change. In his words, "If it's worth publishing, it's worth publicizing."

    October 01, 2014
  • The Marine Corps has settled a complaint with a high-profile whistleblower. Marine Corps civilian scientist Franz Gayl had raised concerns about delays in sending the blast-resistant trucks known as M-RAPs to Afghanistan and Iraq. Now, after the seven-year battle, the service is pledging to create a better environment for whistleblowers. Tom Devine is the legal director for the Government Accountability Project and he represented Franz Gayl. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with the details of the case.

    October 01, 2014
  • OMB and Treasury are creating a roadmap on how to move forward with DATA Act implementation over the next 12 to 36 months. Meanwhile, congressional and executive branch auditors are part of the oversight process from the beginning.

    October 01, 2014
  • The chairman of the Veterans Affairs subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations wrote a letter to Veterans Affairs Department Secretary Bob McDonald wanting more details on the actions it will take in light of the inspector general report involving the deputy chief procurement officer at the Veterans Health Administration and FedBid.

    September 30, 2014
  • The Defense Department is proposing stricter lending protections for service members who take out short-term loans. The department says the move would close several loopholes in current regulations that are supposed to protect service members from predatory lenders. Federal News Radio's Jared Serbu joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with details from his DoD Reporter's Notebook.

    September 30, 2014
  • Remember when conferences were fun-filled, let-it-all-hang-out events? Those good old days may be gone for good, says Senior Correspondent Mike Causey.

    September 30, 2014
  • The Veterans Affairs inspector general issued a report alleging the deputy chief procurement officer at the Veterans Health Administration used her position to promote and award a contract to FedBid, a reverse auction vendor, and improperly acted as an agent of the vendor, creating a conflict of interest.

    September 29, 2014
  • Former General Services Administration official Jeff Neely is under indictment for conduct around the Las Vegas conference scandal, and for other misconduct. Brian Miller of Navigant is former Inspector General at the General Services Administration and a former prosecutor. He led the investigation into Jeff Neely's conduct. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he explained the significance of an indictment from a legal perspective.

    September 26, 2014
  • The U.S. District Court in San Francisco indicted Jeff Neely on five counts of making false statements and submitting fraudulent documents. Two of the five counts against Neely are directly related to the Western Regions Conference disgrace.

    September 26, 2014
  • The Office of Government Ethics says the Veterans Affairs Department needs to expand the legal team responsible for ensuring employees follow government ethics rules. The team has just 19 people, in a department of more than 342,000.

    September 23, 2014
  • The Obama administration's strategic sourcing program has been beset by protests from unhappy vendors. This post is part of Jason Miller's Inside the Reporter's Notebook feature.

    September 22, 2014
  • Marilyn Tavenner, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, promised House lawmakers Thursday that the site would be better protected when open enrollment begins in two months. The recent attack on the HealthCare.gov didn't succeed in stealing any data, DHS says. But some lawmakers say a year into the Affordable Care Act, the website still has basic cybersecurity challenges that should have been fixed.

    September 19, 2014
  • It's the job of an inspector general to take a critical look at the programs within an agency and point out areas that need improvement. When data is unreliable or inaccessible, that critical oversight suffers, and IGs are forced to do too many routine audits. These are just two of the concerns voiced by IGs in a survey just released by the Association of Government Accountants and Kearney & Company. David Zavada, partner at Kearney & Company, directed the survey and joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with details.

    September 16, 2014
  • Inspectors general say congressionally mandated reviews of agency conference spending and charge card use are taking resources away from more important investigations, a new survey finds.

    September 15, 2014