Into the Oversight Void Step the Inspectors General

Last year, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction found federal mismanagement complicated by corruption among government contractors and Iraqi officials that led to at least one criminal indictment.

And more than 350 investigators, auditors and evaluators from the inspectors general offices at the Department of Homeland Security and other departments were dispatched to scrutinize federal spending in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The job can bring as much grief as acclaim. Before becoming IG at the Corporation for National and Community Service in 2002, J. Russell George, then a staff director for a House subcommittee, called around to current and former IGs to ask what the job was like: "The vast majority of them said, 'Don't do it,' " he said.

George was told that IGs considered too aggressive by the White House can be perceived as too docile by Congress. He took the job anyway, and last year he was promoted by President Bush to be the inspector general overseeing the Internal Revenue Service.

"There's no question that being an IG is difficult," said George, who says he likes his work. "It's human nature that people many times do not like to be criticized or to be told that what they are doing is either wrong or could be done better. That is exactly what we as IGs have to do."

Some IGs are as controversial as the agencies they oversee.

Pentagon Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz resigned in September after learning that he was the target of a congressional inquiry into whether he had blocked two criminal probes. Janet Rehnquist resigned the IG's post at the Department of Health and Human Services in June 2003, ending a controversial 22-month tenure in which she improperly kept a firearm in her office and initiated personnel changes that led at least 20 senior managers to retire, resign or be reassigned. That same summer, U.S. Postal Service Inspector General Karla W. Corcoran retired after a federal investigation found that she abused her authority, spent more than $1 million on each of three employee award ceremonies and conducted questionable personnel practices.

A few critics say the work of inspectors general has been undermined by politics. A 2004 report by the Democratic staff of the House Government Reform Committee found that fewer than 20 percent of inspectors general appointed by Bush had audit experience, while nearly two-thirds had held political positions, such as working for a GOP member of Congress or in a Republican White House. Under President Bill Clinton, more than 60 percent had audit experience and fewer than one-quarter had held political positions, the report said.

Yet, as Light, the government professor, pointed out, "Yes, there are more politicals, but some have become very aggressive IGs."

Clark Kent Ervin, a Texan who served in Bush's gubernatorial administration, got the inspector general's job at the Department of Homeland Security through a recess appointment because the Senate would not schedule a confirmation vote. Once in, Ervin became a thorn in then-Secretary Tom Ridge's side, issuing reports critical of spending and management practices at DHS agencies. He left in December 2004 (the expiration of his appointment) when it became clear that the White House would not renominate him.

"Here's a guy who was being groomed as a political type, but they canned him as quickly as possible," Light said.

Kenneth M. Mead, the IG at the Transportation Department, said inspectors general must set politics aside and "speak truth to power."

"It's important that the IG be a player," Mead said. "If you don't go after the big issues, you can be marginalized. I think it's important that we're not just sitting around looking at vouchers."