Investigations

Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity & Efficiency Investigations Committee

Mike Missal, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs; Committee Chair
Mark Bialek, Inspector General, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System/Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Vice Chair

Note: Prior to the establishment of the CIGIE, this committee operated under the auspices of the "PCIE" (President's Council on Integrity & Efficiency) and the "ECIE" (Executive Council on Integrity & Efficiency). Reports completed prior to the CIGIE use the PCIE & ECIE acronyms in their titles.

Mission

The mission of the Investigations Committee is to advise the Inspector General community on issues involving criminal investigations, criminal investigations personnel, and establishing criminal investigative guidelines. The Investigations Committee relies on the Investigations Advisory Subcommittee to assist in these efforts.

Reports

  • This CIGIE Suspension and Debarment (S&D) report is intended primarily to raise the profile of suspension and debarment within the IG community, and to identify practices that could assist OIGs in pursuing these remedies. To this end, the CIGIE report features three sections. The first section provides basic background information about these remedies. The second section addresses certain misconceptions about suspension and debarment that may limit use of these actions: (1) that pursuing these actions necessarily jeopardizes contemporaneous judicial proceedings; (2) that they require a predicate judicial finding; and (3) that successful OIG referrals can only be based upon investigative action, not audit or inspection activities. The third and final section identifies a number of suggested practices aimed at enhancing the use of these tools in the IG community, such as those pertaining to referral processes at certain OIGs, outreach and communication between relevant communities, and training.
  • Additionally, in conjunction with the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, the CIGIE Suspension and Debarment Working Group conducted a short survey (between February and March 2011) of suspension and debarment use and practices among the 28 agencies that received funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). To a limited extent, the survey also solicited information pertaining to other remedies (i.e., those without Governmentwide effect), such as agency specific award suspensions and terminations. This report summarizes the result of this informal survey and illuminates where particular enhancements might be made going forward.

    The information gathered through this survey is intended to be used to inform efforts to enhance the overall use of these protective tools -- even after ARRA funds have been expended.

  • On June 18, 2013, the membership of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) adopted the Common Competencies of Office of Inspectors General Criminal Investigators (Common Competencies), issued May 24, 2013; and the accompanying Job Task Analysis and Competency Assessment for Offices of Inspectors General Criminal Investigators (JTA), issued in July 2012. The May 24, 2013, Common Competencies and the July 2012 JTA can assist Inspectors General in managing the criminal investigator (CI) workforce in areas such as developing criteria for CI performance, hiring of CIs, and updating CI competencies and the Job Task Illustration for Investigators. Although the goal is to achieve consistency in common competencies and job tasks of criminal investigators, it is important to recognize the uniqueness of the mission of each Office of Inspector General (OIG) and that an OIG might decide to deviate from this body of work. Accordingly, the Common Competencies, JTA, and suggestions within have been developed as guidance to further the OIG mission; they are not intended to imply any policy or mandated requirements.

Quality Standards & Other Operating Documents

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