The City of Chicago
In his statement to the City Council he pointed out:
“Over the past year, IGO audits and program reviews have identified more than $700,000 in lost or wasted City expenditures, operational inefficiencies that cost the City about $19 million a year, and identified more than $13.5 million inappropriate and out of protocol spending, including:
- $134,325 in lost merchandise (City Clerk Vehicle Sticker Audit, 2010 Q4)
- $13,678,786 in inappropriate expenditures (OEMC Audit, 2011 Q2)
- $19,001 in missing electronics (OEMC Audit)
- $481,641 in unnecessary spending due to failure to utilize contract guaranty (Tree Audit, 2011 Q2)
- $19 million in annual waste due to redundant staffing in the ranks of Motor Truck Drivers across numerous City Departments.
Besides identifying waste and fraud, the office is involved in criminalinvestigations. “On the investigations side, we have completed 241 separate cases to date in 2011, and have assisted Federal and State prosecutors in 31 ongoing or completed criminal prosecutions that stemmed from IGO investigations. This helps to ensure a strong disincentive for City employees and contractors who would engage in fraud and other unlawful conduct to profit from the City."
Current pending cases in federal court from IGO investigations include major multi-defendant M/WBE program fraud cases arising from matters in which the City was defrauded of millions of dollars. Trials, pleas and sentences in the still ongoing Operation Crooked Code initiative involving corruption in the Building Department has now reached 21 convicted individuals, 15 of whom were City employees. There will be additional trials in the coming months.
The history of the office goes back to 1956, but it really had no power until the 1980’s when “the ordinance creating the IGO provided for investigative powers previously denied to the City’s internal investigative agencies. The Inspector General has the power to issue subpoenas to compel the attendance of witnesses for purposes of examination, as well as the production of documents and other items for inspection and/or duplication.”
On the web site of the IG is the mission statement, “The mission of the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (IGO) is to root out corruption, waste, and mismanagement, while promoting effectiveness and efficiency in City government. The IGO is a watchdog for the taxpayers of the City, and has jurisdiction to conduct investigations and audits into most aspects of City government.”
To make sure that someone is watching the watchdog, IGO undergoes a triennial quality assessment peer review and hired an outside audit firm to conduct a review of their investigative accounts going back five years.
So what is the problem? Maybe figuring out who reports to whom?
In a Tribune story,we learn that Corporation Counsel Stephen Patton, ( the city’s own chief attorney) says the inspector general ultimately reports to the mayor and cannot enforce subpoenas without Law Department approval. That does not allow the IG to “have full independence from the very administration he is supposed to investigate.”
Last week after a city council meeting Patton said, “He’s independent, but the IG is a part of city government and ultimately reports to the mayor as the chief executive — as the elected official.” The Tribune reported that “The administration’s position means the inspector general’s ability to get some documents it needs for investigations depends on a department that reports to the mayor.”
Back to the question. Who does the Office of the Inspector General report to? The ordinance creating the office gave it subpoena power, but if the mayor’s office needs to approve the subpoenas first, they could quash them.
The answer is simple.
The Inspector General should report to the citizens of Chicago and no one else.
Wouldn't that be a refreshing change? How about on the National level too?
ReplyDeleteGreat analyis. Why don't you run for mayor?
ReplyDelete