, to see if you have full access to this publication.
Book Titles No access
Monitoring Government
Inspectors General and the Search for Accountability
Authors:
Publisher:
2011
Summary
Until the Department of Housing and Urban Development scandal in 1989, the public knew little about federal inspectors general (IGs). Suddenly, Congress, the press, and the public were seeking answers to a scandal that challenged the role of the IGs in ensuring government accountability. Within days, the IGs were front-page news, and greater emphasis was placed on fraud, waste, and abuse as a measure of whether government could be held accountable.
Monitoring Government offers the first systematic evaluation of the offices of inspector general OIGs and examines the government-wide investment in the IG concept. Despite their increasingly prominent, often controversial, role in the internal oversight of government, very little is known about their institutional or operational problems. To some in the executive branch, OIGs exercise too much discretion at the expense of executive control. To others in Congress, they do not have enough autonomy and responsibility. Overall the question is not only how the OIGs have functioned, but also what role they soundly play in our system of separation of powers.
Paul Light begins with a brief history of the IG concept, from the passage of the 1978 IG Act to the changes in mission with new administrations. He explains the different approaches to accountability, discusses the nature of monitoring the political incentives surrounding findings and recommendations made by IGs, and looks at the dominance of compliance monitoring as the front line against fraud, waste, and abuse.
The book addresses a number of specific issues regarding the policing of government. Using detailed interviews with past IGs and senior-level officials across government, as well as a case study of the Housing and Urban Development scandal, Lights examines a series of specific operational issues. Envisioning a broader role for the IG in the future, he offers recommendations to strengthen the search for accountability.
Search publication
Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2011
ISBN-Print
978-0-8157-5256-1
ISBN-Online
978-0-8157-1782-9
Publisher
Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
274
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
Why Study IGs? No access
Methods of Inquiry No access
Plan of the Book No access
Paths to Accountability No access
Monitoring toward Accountability No access
Conclusion: An Era of Limits No access
An Introduction to the IG Act No access
A Brief History No access
A Statutory Prototype No access
A Nonstatutory Alternative No access
Conclusion: A Barbed Wire Fence No access
The Three Horsemen of the IG Concept No access
The Politics of Fraud Busting No access
The Information Imperative No access
Conclusion: The Choice of Compliance No access
What Might Have Been No access
The IG Job Description No access
Institutionalized Ambivalence No access
Carter's Choices No access
An Abbreviated Term No access
Conclusion: Too Much to Do, Too Little Time No access
Fear of Firing No access
Getting Started .. . Again No access
The Seeds of Alliance No access
Conclusion: A Match Made in Heaven? No access
The Class of 1985 No access
Fine-Tuning No access
Into the Bush Years No access
Conclusion: Uncertain Futures No access
Auditors and Investigators No access
The Investigatory Impulse No access
Conclusion: Protecting IGs No access
An Organizational History of the OIGs No access
The Organizational Future No access
The IGs as Institutional Memory No access
Measures of Effectiveness No access
Conclusion: Questions of Performance No access
The IG Act Innovations No access
A Reprise on Reform No access
A Safe Harbor for Analysis No access
Appendix: Interview Contacts No access Pages 236 - 240
