Fed watchdogs in their own catfight

The federal government’s inspector generals are usually seen as the watchdogs who investigate allegations of mismanagement, waste, fraud and abuse by government agencies and then demand the agencies shape up.

The IG’s also periodically review each other’s work to ensure that everyone’s following appropriate procedures in conducting agency audits.

It seems a most unusual — in fact, downright nasty — catfight erupted last week between two inspector generals when the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) reviewed some work of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation IG (PBGC- OIG).

Obviously we’re not going to get involved in the gory details, save to say that the battle is over proper compliance with government accounting standards (GAGAS).

The SIGAR team reviewed two of the PBGC team’s audits and graded them in a report on May 15 with a “pass with deficiencies.”

That sparked what became a bench-clearing brawl, most of which is laid out here.

-Al Kamen, WashingtonPost.com
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