As President Obama’s sequestration cuts go into effect, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report this week detailing the growth in the backlog unimplemented recommendations from agency inspectors general. Also in response to the cuts this week, Congressman Louis Gohmert (R-Texas) introduced an amendment to the continuing resolution spending bill that would bar funding for President Obama’s golf outings until the White House reopens for public tours.
Gohmert, who announced his amendment from the floor of the House, said Americans, whether Republicans or Democrats, will be greatly disappointed to come to Washington and not be able to get their tours of the White House. Many tours are planned well in advance.
The amendment states:
None of the funds made available by a division of this act may be used to transport the president to or from a golf course until public tours of the White House resume.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee report, “chronicles $67 billion in unimplemented reforms that non-partisan Inspectors General have identified,” said Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. “President Obama should listen to the recommendations of his Administration’s own Inspector Generals and work with Congress to implement common sense spending cuts that target wasteful and poorly performing programs instead of settling for the furloughs and service disruptions happening under the sequester.”
The Committee’s review found that the backlog had grown to a high of 16,906 open recommendations. Using the most conservative cost-saving estimates, implementing these recommendations could save taxpayers $67 billion per year.
On an annual basis over the past four years, the Committee has requested 73 agency IGs to identify their recommendations they’ve made to management which have gone unimplemented.
Findings:
Federal agencies did not implement 15,784 recommendations from the IGs in FY2011, worth more than $55 billion to taxpayers.
In January 2009, former Chairman Waxman found that federal agencies could have saved taxpayers $25.9 billion by implementing open IG recommendations. Today, there are 16,906 unimplemented recommendations worth $67 billion to taxpayers.
The numbers of unimplemented recommendations and unrealized savings for taxpayers have increased every year since 2009.There are IG vacancies at the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and USAID. In 2012, those agencies ranked first, second, and fourth among agencies with the most unimplemented recommendations.
There are currently IG vacancies at six agencies where the President nominates the IG. Those six agencies collectively represent more than 25% of the President’s entire 2013 budget. The Committee’s analysis shows that the lack of a permanent IG correlates to an increase in the number of open and unimplemented recommendations.
Congress installed inspectors general (IGs) at Executive Branch departments and agencies to identify waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. IGs conduct independent audits and investigations and make recommendations to protect the interests of taxpayers and improve the effectiveness of government. Their valuable work is frustrated if agency management ignores or fails to implement their recommendations.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has jurisdiction over the IG community. This staff report is a compilation of four years’ worth of data provided to the Committee by the IGs. The IGs responded to annual requests from the Committee for the volume and value of their open and unimplemented recommendations beginning in 2009. Based on data provided annually by the IGs, the Committee’s Republican staff found that agency management has not implemented thousands of recommendations that would save taxpayers more than $67 billion.
The backlog for implementing IG recommendations has reached an all-time high, and the volume of recommendations that remain unimplemented continues to increase every year. In 2008, then-Chairman Henry Waxman found that the Bush Administration did not fully implement more than 13,800 IG recommendations made since 2001. Since then-Ranking Member Darrell Issa began surveying the IGs, the total number of open and unimplemented recommendations has increased dramatically, from 10,894 in 2009 to 16,906 in 2012. The potential savings associated with those open and unimplemented recommendations increased even more dramatically, from $26 billion when Chairman Waxman released his findings in 2009 to more than $67 billion in 2012. These figures reflect the most conservative possible accounting of the number and dollar value of the IGs’ open and unimplemented recommendations. It is likely that both totals are significantly higher.
The data also show a correlation between the absence of a permanent inspector general and a high volume of open and unimplemented recommendations. Since 2009, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Agency for International Development (USAID) have consistently ranked among the agencies with the most Open and unimplemented recommendations. In 2012, they ranked first, second and fourth, respectively. The President is responsible for filling the IG vacancies at these agencies, as well as at the Department of the Interior, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Defense. These six agencies have been without a permanent inspector general for more than 15 years collectively. More than one quarter ($900 billion) of the President’s total 2013 budget request ($3.6 trillion) was for these six agencies, which employ more than three quarters (more than 3.5 million) of the entire federal workforce (approximately 4.4 million).
As Congress and the Administration work to identify new ways to save money, they would be well-served by implementing the recommendations of the IG community. If evidence continues to mount that the Administration is dismissive of the work of the IG community, Congress should aggressively incorporate unimplemented recommendations into legislative actions.
