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Trump Fires Head of Oversight For COVID Rescue Funds; Let's Revisit Our 2017 Post About What Inspector Generals Do
HIS IS A BIG DEAL. THIS IS THE CORRUPTION ON AN UNIMAGINABLE LEVEL. THIS IS A CODE RED ALARM.
Trump has removed the chairman of the federal panel Congress created to oversee his administration’s management of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package — the latest action by the president to undermine the system of independent oversight of the executive.
Last week, Glenn Fine was selected by the head of a council of inspectors general to lead the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, created by the March 27 law.
Fine, who had been the acting Pentagon inspector general, was informed Monday that he was being replaced....Because he is no longer acting inspector general, Fine is ineligible to hold the spending watchdog role.
Trump's assault on Inspectors General is designed to intimidate anyone who would impede or shed light on his misconduct. Note the targets recently:
1) Intelligence Inspector General who received whistleblower report
2) Health & Human Services Inspector General who identified hospitals needing more COVID testing
3) And now, the Inspector General who would oversee COVID loan funds
In just the past four days, Trump has ousted two inspectors general and expressed displeasure with a third, a pattern that critics say is a direct assault on one of the pillars of good governance.
On April 3rd, the president notified Congress that he was removing Michael Atkinson as the inspector general of the intelligence community — a decision that Trump acknowledged was in response to Atkinson’s having alerted lawmakers to the existence of a whistleblower complaint about the president’s dealings with Ukraine. The matter ultimately led to Trump’s impeachment in the House before his acquittal in the Senate.
Trump has also refused dozens of congressional subpoenas and asserted to the courts that they lack jurisdiction to oversee his responses to Congress.
The lack of transparency around TARP sparked immense public outrage and birthed Occupy Wall Street. THIS IS MUCH, MUCH WORSE.
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In light of this, we are re-sharing our AUGUST 2017 article below: http://smartdissent.com/article/be-smart-about-inspector-generals-what-do-they-do
Inspector Generals - What Do They Do and Why Are They At Risk?
BE SMART ABOUT is our unfortunate series highlighting people in power or important topics you need to stay informed about so you can share this knowledge and together we can Be Smart and Actively Dissent. Today we discuss the Office of the Inspector General. You will not find this information on cable news and rarely in print media. Inspector Generals play a crucial role in our government and society and have enormous significance to our nation yet they are under attack without any outcry.
Let's take a look at the history of Inspector Generals and what roles they play.
Inspectors general are accountable to the taxpayers. They are supposed to detect and prevent waste, fraud and abuse — and thereby, hopefully, build back just a little trust in government. The institution is now more than 20 years old.
Every major federal agency and program has an inspector general, a nonpartisan, independent official whose staff investigates cases of wasteful spending, criminal activity, employee misconduct and plain bad management. These are watchdogs with real teeth.
[There are] 69 inspectors general who keep tabs on government activities in the executive and legislative branch.... auditing government programs, investigating things like food stamp fraud and generally making sure taxpayer dollars are being spent in the manner for which they are intended. It's an idea as old as the republic. George Washington had an inspector general....
In 1978, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, which sent levels of trust in government plummeting, Congress established a system of inspectors general for civilian agencies. Some are appointed by the president, others by the heads of the agencies they watch over. They're supposed to be independent...
Inspector generals are often alerted to fraud by government employees who see suspicious activities in their department. Sometimes they initiate their own investigations.
The focus of Inspector Generals and the reason the program exists seems like something even Republicans would support. However, the Trump White House has floated plans to fire all Inspector Generals and has sought to undermine their positions whenever possible including refusing to fill open positions and cutting their budgets.
Today nearly one-quarter of inspector general offices have either an acting director or no director at all, including the offices at the C.I.A., the National Security Agency, the Department of Defense and the Social Security Administration.
The inspectors’ offices are deeply affected by the current federal hiring freeze and would be further harmed by the administration’s proposed budget cuts. The budget takes specific aim at the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program... That office has gone after 96 bankers; at least 36 went to prison. In 2015 its investigators helped prosecute General Motors for covering up a defective ignition switch responsible for at least 15 deaths, securing a $900 million settlement. The administration wants to cut its budget in half, to $20 million; as a result it has stopped accepting applications to its foreclosure prevention program.
Inspector Generals have proven to cut down on government waste to directly save taxpayers significant money. They are the means to create a more efficient government for our benefit.
...in 2015 alone, the [Inspector General] offices identified $26 billion in potential savings and recovered an additional $10 billion through criminal and civil cases. That’s a return of $14 for every dollar in the offices’ budgets.
Congress has demonstrated bipartisan willingness to step up for inspectors general in the past, and last year it expanded the types and scope of protection offered to government whistle-blowers. Now it needs to protect the watchdogs from an administration that wants to starve them.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/opinion/mr-trump-goes-after-the-inspectors.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126511407