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GAO-09-660R 1 (2009-05-08)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaanni0001 and id is 1 raw text is: im Am,GA 0 T E IAccountability * Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 May 8, 2009 The Honorable Diane E. Watson Chairwoman Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and Procurement Committee on Oversight and Government Reform House of Representatives Subject: Statutory Authorities to Prohibit Inspector General Activities Dear Madam Chairwoman: This letter provides information you requested at the March 25, 2009, hearing entitled The Roles and Responsibilities of Inspectors General within Financial Regulatory Agencies. During the hearing, the former Inspector General (IG) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) testified that provisions of the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended (IG Act), allow the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury to prevent the IG from pursuing an investigation or audit, including the issuance of subpoenas, under certain conditions.' Due to concerns about the possible inappropriate use of such authorities, you asked us to identify federal agencies that possess the authority under the IG Act to prohibit audits and investigations by their offices of inspectors general (IG offices) and to determine the extent to which such provisions have been used to limit the IGs' activities. We reviewed the IG Act to identify those IG offices subject to such authority and contacted each office identified to obtain information about the extent to which the relevant authorities had been exercised. In addition, we included the IG office at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which was not established under the IG Act, but is subject to provisions in its enabling legislation that are similar to those in the IG Act.2 The IG Act provides specific protections intended to help ensure the independence of IG audits and investigations. For example, the IG Act prohibits an agency head from preventing an IG from initiating, carrying out, or completing any audit or investigation, or from issuing any subpoena during the course of any audit or investigation. However, the IG Act authorizes the heads of six agencies to prohibit their respective IGs from carrying out or completing an audit or investigation, or from issuing any subpoena if the head determines that such prohibition is necessary to prevent either the disclosure of certain sensitive information or significant harm to certain national interests. In addition, the enabling legislation for the CIA IG contains a provision that authorizes the CIA Director to prohibit the audits and investigations by the IG if the Director determines such prohibition is necessary to protect vital national interests of the United States. Table 1 shows a summary of the restrictive statutory provisions applicable to these seven federal agencies. 'Pub. L. No. 95-452, 92 Stat. 1101 (Oct. 12, 1978), codified as amended at 5 U.S.C. App. 250 U.S.C. § 403q. GAO-09-660R Statutory Authorities to Prohibit IG Activities

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