Inspectors General

The first Inspectors General—one for infantry and one for cavalry—were appointed by the French Army in 1668 and had the principal duties of reviewing the troops and reporting to the King. During the American Revolution, George Washington adopted the concept, charging his Inspector General with correcting all abuses and deficiencies within the Continental Army. But it was two centuries later before civilian Inspectors General were established to fight fraud, corruption, and waste in government.

One of the core principles at the foundation of government is that public service is a public trust. An Inspector General is specifically charged with [Page 244]safeguarding that trust and does so by requiring that government is guided by high standards of integrity and honesty. The job of an Inspector General includes identifying, investigating, and deterring misconduct by government officials and employees. In this way, the Inspector General helps ensure that government runs effectively and efficiently, that tax dollars are spent honestly, and that those who work in the government are held accountable to the citizens they serve.

Governments have always tried to fight corruption and monitor integrity, but until the 1970s, this was usually done in the form of a special commission, committee, or task force established in response to a particular scandal. For example, the Watergate Committee, the Knapp Commission, and the Whitewater Independent Counsel were all created in this way and then disbanded once their findings were complete or the threat of the specific crisis passed. Establishing Inspectors General to monitor and oversee government entities showed a commitment to address wrongdoing and improve efficiency proactively. With a combination of legal, law enforcement, and analytical personnel, Inspectors General have institutionalized fraud-fighting efforts and have taken the campaign against government corruption a major step forward.

In 1978, the first U.S. civilian Inspectors General were appointed by Congress in 12 major federal agencies, such as the Department of Commerce and the Department of Education. Concurrently, the idea was reaching state and local government. In 1981, following a scandal involving public construction projects, Massachusetts passed legislation that made it the first state in the country to establish an Inspector General's office with statewide jurisdiction. Other states followed later, such as New York in 1986 and Ohio and Louisiana in 1988. The City of Philadelphia established an Inspector General's office in 1984, and the City of Chicago followed in 1989.

Inspectors General offices are most commonly structured in one of two ways: reporting solely to the executive branch of government or reporting to both the executive branch and the commissioner or head of the agency or agencies the Inspectors General oversee. Those who report only to the executive branch are often viewed as less independent and objective as those with a dual reporting structure. Their dependence on the governor or mayor often brands them as politically motivated. However, those with attention and loyalties divided between the executive branch and agency commissioners are often seen as less effective and less autonomous. Effectiveness is influenced because the Inspector General's staff is often in different physical locations, and therefore, less attention may be paid to cross-agency or multiagency cases and problems. Autonomy may be affected because it may become more difficult to investigate top-level agency officials when working closely with them or reporting to them.

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