Comer threatens to strip watchdog council's authority over IG misconduct probes

The House Oversight Committee is telling the federal agency tasked with investigating misconduct allegations against senior inspectors general that it has concerns about whether the agency is following its own rules.

The letter was sent Wednesday by committee Chairman Rep. James Comer to Cheryl Mason, chairwoman of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency.

Comer, a Kentucky Republican, also in the letter threatened to remove CIGIE's authority.

“These systemic failures force the Committee to consider all options at its disposal, including removing or modifying the duty to investigate wrongdoing within the offices of inspectors general from CIGIE," he wrote. 

"While the Committee reviews potential changes to remedy these failures, it is imperative that CIGIE immediately improve its investigation processes to address the issues found by [the Government Accountability Office],” Comer also wrote.

He was referring to a recent GAO report that alleged that CIGIE failed to follow its own policies and the law. 

The report determined that between fiscal 2021 and the first half of fiscal 2025, CIGIE received 16,245 complaints, resulting in 460 cases for review. During this time, it completed just 15 reported investigations. The GAO reviewed five of those cases, and found that none were completed within the 150-day time frame required by law, with lengths ranging from 427 to 1,246 days, also according to the report. 

Failure of documentation

The report also found that CIGIE did not always receive detailed reimbursement requests from inspectors general, but still approved all requests. CIGIE also failed at times to document required information in case studies and sometimes failed to reflect the conclusions reached by the assisting Office of Inspector General without explaining why the difference existed.

Based on these and other issues, Comer demanded that CIGIE provide the Oversight Committee with documents and information pertaining to four questions no later than July 15:

1. A list of all actions taken by CIGIE to address the findings in the GAO report;

2. All documents and communications between the Chair of CIGIE or the Chair’s staff and the Integrity Committee staff or members, regarding requests for information from Congress;

3. A detailed plan of action to address the findings in the GAO report; and

4. Ideas for actions that Congress can take to work with CIGIE to improve the consistency of the Integrity Committee’s complaint, investigation, and reporting processes.

Comer’s letter follows Just the News’ reporting on CIGIE, which mentioned some of the eight recommendations GAO proposed to improve the Committee's function, including implementation strategies to meet required timelines, including all required information in case summaries, and receiving better documentation of OIG requests for reimbursements.