Victor David Hanson’s Real Clear Politics article today, "The Silencing of the Inspectors General," is an excellent exposé on the role of inspectors general during the Obama administration, but I respectfully disagree with his bottom line that, "Finding government abuse and doing nothing about it is worse than not finding any at all."
There is intrinsic value in inspectors general shedding light on governmental fraud, waste, or abuses of power, regardless of whether or not someone else in government does something about those facts.
As explained in "The Inspector General Handbook: Fraud, Waste, Abuse, and Other Constitutional 'Enemies, Foreign and Domestic'," inspectors general are by statute "independent and objective" fact-finders. They are not prosecutors. Whenever inspectors general shed light on governmental fraud, waste, or abuse of power, they help fulfill the constitutional mandate in Article I, Section 9, that, "a regular statement and account of receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time."
Inspectors general are also empowered by Congress in Section 4 of the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, to make recommendations both to their respective agency heads and to Congress. Moreover, "In carrying out the duties and responsibilities established under this Act, each Inspector General shall report expeditiously to the Attorney General whenever the Inspector General has reasonable grounds to believe there has been a violation of Federal criminal law."
In their statutorily "independent and objective" fact-finding role, inspectors general help "We the People" understand better how our government is spending our money. This is more than just a good thing. It is what I have explained in a number of previous posts, an American "first thing."
Joseph E. Schmitz served as a foreign policy and national security advisor to Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. The opinions expressed in this article are his personal opinions. Schmitz served as Inspector General of the Department of Defense from 2002-2005 and is now Chief Legal Officer of Pacem Solutions International. He graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy, earned his J.D. degree from Stanford Law School, and is author of "The Inspector General Handbook: Fraud, Waste, Abuse, and Other Constitutional ‘Enemies, Foreign and Domestic.’" Read more reports from Joseph E. Schmitz — Click Here Now.
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