The Trump Administration Must Fill Remaining IG Vacancies

Statement from POGO’s Executive Director

Yesterday, President Trump told Forbes in an interview that he will leave “a lot” of appointments vacant, citing the size of the federal government as his reason. While the size of the political appointee “class” has grown and some of those positions may not be vital for government to function, the vacancies of 13 inspectors general offices shouldn’t be part of the President’s effort to reduce the size of the federal government through failure of appointments.

POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian issued the following statement:

Inspectors General play a critical role to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government--saving taxpayers an estimated $17 for every $1 invested in an IG office. President Trump ran on the need to “drain the swamp” but he’s missing the very people who are able to effectively identify wasteful government practices, fraud by individuals and government contractors, and other sorts of government misconduct.

POGO continuously criticized the Obama administration for failing to fill these accountability vacancies in a timely manner. There are currently 13 IG vacancies across the government including at the Department of Interior, which has been vacant since February 2009. President Trump should make filling these vacancies a top priority.