Revolt of the inspectors general

[Ichingcarpenter]

A majority of the federal government's inspectors general - 47 out of 78 - have signed a joint letter to Congress denouncing the Obama administration for obstructing their inquiries into maladministration, waste, fraud and abuse.

The extraordinary letter, dated Aug. 5, cites particular examples from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Peace Corps and, most shockingly, the Department of Justice, where Attorney General Eric Holder claims the right to decide if the IG can view documents in pursuit of his duties.

The federal inspectors general function as watchdogs over the ever-growing bureaucracy, and make a major contribution to keeping government accountable to U.S. citizens.To do so, the IGs must be independent and be able to compel agencies to provide them with full access.

Indeed, the IG letter notes that the intent of the 1978 Inspector General Act is that "an Inspector General must have complete, unfiltered and timely access to all information and materials available to the agency that relate to that Inspector General's oversight activities, without unreasonable administrative burdens."


http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20140825/PC1002/140829631/1022/revolt-of-the-inspectors-general

So I was curious on who and how Inspector general's got their job.



In the United States, an inspector general leads an organization charged with examining the actions of a government agency, military organization, or military contractor as a general auditor of their operations to ensure they are operating in compliance with generally established policies of the government, to audit the effectiveness of security procedures, or to discover the possibility of misconduct, waste, fraud, theft, or certain types of criminal activity by individuals or groups related to the agency's operation, usually involving some misuse of the organization's funds or credit.


Some inspectors general, the heads of the offices, are appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate.[8] For example, both the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the inspector general of the U.S. Agency for International Development are presidentially appointed. The remaining inspectors general are designated by their respective agency heads,[9] such as the U.S. Postal Service inspector general.[10] Presidentially appointed IGs can only be removed, or terminated, from their positions by the President of the United States, whereas designated inspectors general can be terminated by the agency head.[11] However, in both cases Congress must be notified

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_general#United_States

So either way Obama has appointed either the department heads who select the inspector general or the inspector general itself.

Just wanted to see if they were hung overs from Bush administration so from what I see he had control over the selection process. Reagan fired almost all IGs when he came to power.

[antiquie]

1. Each IG must be researched to see who made the appointment.

Eric M. Thorson is the Inspector General for the United States Treasury Department.

Eric Thorson was nominated to be Inspector General of the Department of the Treasury by President George W. Bush on November 15, 2007 and confirmed by the Senate on August 1, 2008. He was sworn into office on August 12, 2008.

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. Obama could have fired him

long ago.

[antiquie]

3. Apologies.

I was responding to "So I was curious on who and how Inspector general's got their job."

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. None needed

DU has said since he was first elected he needed to clean house or CHANGE would not happen and the process shows he could have done this with the IGs

IGs were first started under the Carter administration and I think they were a great idea for transparency in government.

This is the first time this has happened and its an important development.

It would be nice like you said to do a who's who on this list of signatories.
The ones under the discretion of the department head wouldn't be under congressional control like the ones that needed congressional approval.

[jwirr]

5. My first question before I take their word for it: Is this a department that would be prone to using

their power to attack the president on the behalf of the rethugs. In other words is this just another political attack? bushie left a lot of people in the government when he left and they can and have been causing trouble ever since.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. Obama wanted bi partisanship

that's why he keep Bushies running the government. He had complete power to install a Obama majority of AG through his department heads....

Oh... nevermind......

[jwirr]

8. Yes, but what I am upset about is that the people do not see this. I have no doubt that there is

some waste in all departments and I want them to point it out but I need to know that it is not just politics.

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. Inspector General of the EPA and Justice

These two agencies were put as examples of obstruction and both AG are democrats.




one of the signatories

Bio seems he's no republican

Arthur A. Elkins, Jr. became Inspector General of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on June 25, 2010. Before his appointment, Mr. Elkins served as Associate General Counsel within EPA's Office of General Counsel.



http://www.epa.gov/oig/about.html#Who_What_Why


Department of Justice IG was appointed by Obama so that's a given he's an Obama pick

Michael E. Horowitz was confirmed as Inspector General for the Department of Justice (DOJ) by the U.S. Senate on March 29, 2012. He was sworn in as the fourth confirmed Inspector General on April 16, 2012.

As Inspector General, Mr. Horowitz oversees a nationwide workforce of more than 400 special agents, auditors, inspectors, attorneys, and support staff whose mission is to detect and deter waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct in DOJ programs and personnel, and to promote economy and efficiency in Department operations.

Mr. Horowitz most recently worked as a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham, & Taft LLP, where he focused his practice on white collar defense, internal investigations, and regulatory compliance. He also was a board member of the Ethics Resource Center and the Society for Corporate Compliance and Ethics. From 2003 to 2009, Mr. Horowitz served as a Presidentially appointed and Senate confirmed Commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. As Commissioner, he was instrumental in rewriting the guidelines for corporate compliance programs, and for fraud, antitrust, intellectual property, and money laundering offenses.

Mr. Horowitz previously worked for DOJ in the Criminal Division at Main Justice from 1999 to 2002, first as Deputy Assistant Attorney General and then as Chief of Staff. Prior to joining the Criminal Division, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1991 to 1999. From 1997 to 1999, Mr. Horowitz was the Chief of the Public Corruption Unit, and from 1995 to 1997, he was a Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division. In 1995, he was awarded the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service for his work on a complex police corruption investigation.




http://www.justice.gov/oig/about/meet-ig.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice_Office_of_the_Inspector_General



Something besides politics is going on.

[jwirr]

11. Thank you. Then we need to listen.

[Ichingcarpenter]

12. Look at the EPA and fracking

Plus Holder's premises on dealing with voter shit in North carolina and texas and what he has done

He's a poser for the banks and the system.

[jwirr]

13. I know he is pretty useless but did not make the connection.

[Ichingcarpenter]

15. Which is why

the the revolt.

The EPA is now an agenc;y for the the oil industry ........Look at the water issues in states......epa does nothing.

now look at monsanto and epa

they run it now



the justice department and holder
is a joke

look at his history protecting assholes


what has he done on voter shit
except say its wrong and then does nothing in the states where it has come up.



Fprget the banking system

nuff said.

[Octafish]

7. Neil Barofsky, then-IG for TARP, explained current cornucopia of corruption.

He said for those without integrity, a pot of gold awaits...

Neil Barofsky Gave Us The Best Explanation For Washington's Dysfunction We've Ever Heard

Linette Lopez
Business Insider, Aug. 1, 2012, 2:57 PM

Neil Barofsky was the Inspector General for TARP, and just wrote a book about his time in D.C. called Bailout: An Insider Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street.

SNIP...

Bottom line: Barofsky said the incentive structure in our nation's capitol is all wrong. There's a revolving door between bureaucrats in Washington and Wall Street banks, and politicians just want to keep their jobs.

For regulators it's something like this:

[font color="green"]"You can play ball and good things can happen to you get a big pot of gold at the end of the Wall Street rainbow or you can do your job be aggressive and face personal ruin...We really need to rethink how we govern and how regulate," Barofsky said.[/font color]

CONTINUED... http://www.businessinsider.com/neil-barofsky-2012-8

...For those with integrity, along for the rest of us, it's Austerity Time. Again.

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. Barofsky, "[a] life-long Democrat who donated money to the Obama campaign,"

He was the Special United States Treasury Department Inspector General overseeing the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), from late 2008 until his resignation at the end of March 2011


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Barofsky#Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program_and_Special_Inspector_Generalship


Very damning article he wrote
thanks my friend

[Octafish]

14. His message fell off a cliff.

No wonder why when you see how the great media corporate consolidation came to be:

The Powell Memo (also known as the Powell Manifesto)

The Powell Memo was first published August 23, 1971

Introduction

In 1971, Lewis Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell’s nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Powell Memo did not become available to the public until long after his confirmation to the Court. It was leaked to Jack Anderson, a liberal syndicated columnist, who stirred interest in the document when he cited it as reason to doubt Powell’s legal objectivity. [font color="red"]Anderson cautioned that Powell “might use his position on the Supreme Court to put his ideas into practice…in behalf of business interests.”[/font color]

Though Powell’s memo was not the sole influence, the Chamber and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo influenced or inspired the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in Academe, and other powerful organizations. Their long-term focus began paying off handsomely in the 1980s, in coordination with the Reagan Administration’s “hands-off business” philosophy.

Most notable about these institutions was their focus on education, shifting values, and movement-building — a focus we share, though often with sharply contrasting goals.* (See our endnote for more on this.)

So did Powell’s political views influence his judicial decisions? The evidence is mixed. [font color="red"]Powell did embrace expansion of corporate privilege and wrote the majority opinion in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, a 1978 decision that effectively invented a First Amendment “right” for corporations to influence ballot questions.[/font color] On social issues, he was a moderate, whose votes often surprised his backers.

CONTINUED...

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/

And, so much of the nation's press were magically transformed from watchdogs into lapdogs and the rich got richer and lived happily ever after. The 99-percent of us got austerity, forever and ever.

[Ichingcarpenter]

16. The truth is out there

but it is painful to some if they search and verify it.

They think 'they are on our side'

but the facts don't say that.

[Ichingcarpenter]

17. Even in this thread

someone pulled up a Bush guy but the Obama AG, appointed for a longer time........ said its corrupt.

I think FRACKING is fucking so evil
and the EPA does nothing.

Why.?.... Science says it is but the EPA doesn't have a comment yet?

[Octafish]

18. I object to people who malign those interested in learning and sharing the truth.

Guilt by association is just one tactic, like when I point out how one Democrat or another sides with the warmongers and banksters.

If it were any Republican who did that crap, I'd have pointed it out, too.

Take Carlyle Group, please. And I wish an Inspector General would.

[Ichingcarpenter]

19. After many searches this protest

is not right or left but embedded with integrity.

The EPA is corrupt the Justice Department is too.

Why would two Obama appointees
say so?

[Octafish]

20. You bring up the most important point of all: INTEGRITY.

If you have it, Siegelman is free and Rove and Co. are in prison.

Instead, those who lied America into endless war for profit -- an illegal, immoral, unnecessary and disastrous war crime of a war -- are free and those who documented their lies and treasons like Manning, Kiriakou, and Snowden are in prison or under threat of death for doing so.

Here's a PDF you might want to check out by Robert J. McCarthey, a whistleblower at the Department of Interior whose report was proven correct, but got drummed out of the government "Service" anyway.

"Blowing in the Wind:
Answers for Federal Whistleblowers"

EXCERPT...

The author demonstrates that MSPB’s self-styled
“administrative judges” are a deceptive and inadequate substitute for
“administrative law judges,” with none of the Congressionally-mandated
qualifications and independence of the latter...

CONTINUED PDF...

https://www.wm.edu/as/publicpolicy/wm_policy_review/Archives/Volume%203/McCarthy.pdf

And the fine print taketh away.