Wayne McElrath

Wayne McElrath is a Senior Investigative Advisor to POGO. He's also the president and CEO of XGE Consulting, and a government, private sector, and nonprofit consultant and international speaker with over 25 years of experience in accountability, compliance, investigations, and oversight. Wayne is the former Director of Forensic Investigations with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). During his tenure, Wayne was responsible for providing executive leadership and oversight for all GAO investigations, controls testing, and vulnerability assessments of federal funds, programs, facilities, and systems nationally and internationally. Additionally, he managed the application of GAO’s Fraud Framework and administered the FraudNet, which is the U.S. government’s oldest publicly accessible hotline for the reporting of allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement.

Prior to joining GAO, Wayne served as the Acting Assistant Inspector General for Investigations with the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Inspector General (OIG); Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Affairs Division for the United States Postal Service, OIG and the United States Postal Inspection Service; Senior Special Agent with the United States Customs Service, the forerunner to the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations; and Special Agent with the Department of Defense, Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

Wayne holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Missouri–St. Louis and a Master of Arts in Defense and Strategic Studies, with an emphasis in Operational Law, from the U.S. Naval War College. He is a Harvard Kennedy School of Government Senior Executive Fellow and a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute. Wayne also honorably served in the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army reserves.