02.28.18

Leading Dems Urge Funding for Interior Department IG – Demands for Investigations Go Unmet for Lack of Resources

Washington, D.C. – Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Donald McEachin (D-Va.), ranking member on the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, sent a letter to top House appropriators today urging full funding for the Department of the Interior (DOI) Office of Inspector General (OIG), which has referred requests for investigations back to DOI in recent years because of staffing and funding shortfalls. The letter, available at http://bit.ly/2GR9ozY, points out that even as OIG has received flat funding or small cuts each year from FY2015 to FY2017, the number of complaints has increased by 27 percent.

As the lawmakers write:

In 2008, the OIG opened investigations on 23 percent of complaints received; in 2017 that figure was only 7 percent. The OIG is referring increasing numbers of hotline complaints to the Interior Department, where the investigation suffers from a loss of independence. Because of funding and staffing shortfalls, the OIG in recent months has not taken up investigation requests from Congress and from inside DOI.

The shortfall, they point out, affects everything from ethics investigations to financial audits. Previous OIG cybersecurity audits have found that DOI is unprepared to respond to incidents, and is not continuously improving its response capabilities.

At the same time, while DOI issued more than $10 billion in contracts and financial assistance in FY2017 alone, OIG has seen a 16 percent drop in audits in the last three years. Because OIG activities produce an estimated twenty dollars in public savings for every dollar spent, the lawmakers write, the agency should receive full funding and increased staffing for the remainder of FY2018.

The request comes as March 1 marks the one-year anniversary of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s confirmation. As the letter notes, Zinke is under investigation for threatening Alaska’s senators over Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s health care vote last year; multiple instances of personal and political travel using taxpayer funds for exorbitant flights; and potentially retaliatory or purge-related reassignments of large numbers of executive staff. CNN reported today that Zinke’s tenure has been unusually marked by controversy and ethical complaints, underscoring the need for a fully functional OIG operation.

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