DoD IG Testifies in Hearing About Top Management Challenges

Photo By Michelle Gordon | The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General’s Principal Deputy Inspector General, Glenn Fine, along with the Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, who is the CIGIE Chair, and the National Science Foundation Inspector General Allison Lerner, who is the CIGIE Vice Chair, testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform April 18, 2018 about management and performance challenges facing federal agencies.  

ALEXANDRIA, VA, UNITED STATES

04.18.2018

Story by Michelle Gordon 

DoD Office of Inspector General

The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General’s (DoD OIG) Principal Deputy Inspector General, Glenn Fine, joined members of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) April 18 for testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Mr. Fine, along with the Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, who is the CIGIE Chair, and the National Science Foundation Inspector General Allison Lerner, who is the CIGIE Vice Chair, discussed management and performance challenges facing federal agencies.

Prior to the hearing, CIGIE released a report which listed seven challenges, identified by the IG community and the CIGIE council, “Top Management and Performance Challenges Identified by the Inspector General Community.”

This report marks the first time that the inspectors general, through CIGIE, have examined reports from across the federal government to identify and analyze common challenges to their agencies and the most critical, systemic problems facing the agencies they oversee.
Mr. Horowitz testified about the seven challenges, stating that the council's effort to identify the most common government-wide challenges will inform the public and policymakers in the executive and legislative branches by identifying broad categories of challenges shared by the majority of federal agencies, notwithstanding vast differences in their sizes and missions.

Ms. Lerner discussed each of the challenges in greater detail: information technology security and management, performance management and accountability, human capital management, financial management, procurement management, facilities management, and grant management.

“Our report focuses on the top seven challenges most frequently reported by 61 statutory IGs in 2017,” she said. “While we couldn't make conclusive determinations with respect to the underlying causes of these challenges, the report notes that many were affected by resource issues, both human and budgetary, and by federal agencies' failure to use performance-based metrics to assess the success of their programs and operations.”

Mr. Fine discussed the DoD OIG’s report on the “Top DoD Management Challenges for Fiscal Year 2018,” which was released November 20, 2017. He described how the report was created, what it is used for, and a summary of some of the 10 challenges highlighted in the document.

“The Top DoD Management Challenges facing the DoD is a critical tool we use in performing our mission to detect and deter waste, fraud and abuse in DoD programs and operations; to promote the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of DoD programs; and to help ensure ethical conduct throughout the DoD,” said Mr. Fine. “We do not simply draft this document as a paper or compliance exercise. Rather, we use our report to identify key areas of risk in the DoD, and to decide where to allocate our oversight resources.”

Mr. Fine noted that while many of the DoD top challenges overlap with those reflected in the CIGIE list, not all of them do, such as DoD challenges in Overseas Contingency Operations in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.

Mr. Fine also addressed the first challenge in the CIGIE report, information technology and its effect on the DoD stating, "If you are not moving forward and addressing IT issues every day, you are moving backward."

Following the testimony from the three IGs, the committee members asked questions, for example, focusing on the accountability for employees in federal agencies, information technology systems, and waste in government.

They also praised the inspectors general for their oversight work.

Representative Dennis Ross, a Republican from Florida said, "Today's witnesses and the larger IG community represent the people on the front lines of the effort to root out waste, fraud and abuse throughout the federal government. These three widely respected inspector generals have spent years examining the programs at the Justice Department, the Defense Department and the National Science Foundation.”

Representative Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, told the IGs she looks forward to working together, and she welcomes the opportunity to implement positive action for change and making government work better for the taxpayers.

"I want to really thank the IGs for the role that you are not only playing today, but that you play every day in trying to maintain the trust of the public and the integrity of our government,” she said. “If our government doesn't have trust – and that's a big part of your job – then the people won't follow it. I think your role is one of the most important in government, and I want to thank you for it.”

• Date Taken: 04.18.2018
• Date Posted: 04.19.2018 19:16
• Story ID: 273773
• Location: ALEXANDRIA, VA, US