Point/Counterpoint: McGuiness says inspector general proposal duplicates auditor duties

The Inspector General as proposed would be responsible for identifying fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, corruption, or any other conduct that harms the public interest. Nearly all of the powers and responsibilities are already covered by work conducted by my office. The Office of Auditor of Accounts already conducts this work to keep Delaware's officials and government entities accountable to the public we serve.”

Editor’s note: This letter was sent to members of the Delaware General Assembly on May 17 and again June 16. 

To the Honorable Members of the General Assembly:

This letter is to provide insight and recommendations pertaining to HB405 and recent efforts to create a Delaware Office of Inspector General.

As your State Auditor, my staff and I are steadfast supporters of any initiatives that would increase the transparency and accountability of our state. Delawareans have a right to good governance that is free of fraud, waste, or abuse, and I applaud this bipartisan effort. HB405 underlines a fundamental truth in our state; Delawareans deserve better.

However, as part of my responsibility under Delaware Code, I am to provide recommendations for greater economy and efficiency in our state. There are several notale areas for improvement with the current legislation.

The Inspector General as proposed would be responsible for identifying fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, corruption, or any other conduct that harms the public interest. Nearly all of the powers and responsibilities are already covered by work conducted by my office. The Office of Auditor of Accounts already conducts this work to keep Delaware's officials and government entities accountable to the public we serve.

Did you know?

1. The Inspector General bill would require the newly formed office to duplicate efforts by creating policies, procedures, and infrastructure the Auditor's Office already has in

a. The Auditor's Office operates a fraud reporting system that anyone can use to report suspected fraud, waste, or abuse.

b. The Auditor's Office received over 1,000 fraud tips via the mobile Fraud App, Fraud Hotline, and Fraud.Delaware.gov. That's more tips than the prior 10 years

c. OAOA's confidential fraud reporting tools are used to assess areas of risk and OAOA works to receive, investigate, resolve complaints of state agencies, and protect the anonymity and confidentiality of Delawareans who report allegations.

2. It is worth noting that the Auditor's Office is one of the single largest contributors to Oversight.gov, a national resource containing publicly accessible reports, investigations, and recommendations from state, federal, and local inspectors general. First in the nation, OAOA submitted over 23% of all reports from state and local participants.
3. OAOA develops an annual risk-based audit Our professional staff compiles all hotline communications, mandated audits, and responses from the Risk Assessment Survey submitted by state employees to determine the following year's engagement plan.

In addition to areas that would be duplicative and an inefficient use of funds, there are areas that could be improved to better ensure accountability and transparency in our state.

1. Appointee Elected Official
   a. Current legislation would create an appointed Inspector General, recommended by a board overseen by the Attorney General, and confirmed by the Governor. An individual appointed and confirmed by the very same people they will be tasked with overseeing creates an undeniable conflict of interest and negates the office's
   b. An appointee is a poor substitute for an independently elected Delawareans will vote for their preferred State Auditor this coming November. Leaving these critical responsibilities to an appointee undermines the transparency and accountability that Delawareans deserve. We are not better served by a system that would allow potential auditees or subjects of investigations to hand select the individual responsible for their oversight. Delawareans already have a democratically elected official that oversees fraud, waste, and abuse. The office being wholly separate from other branches of government is an integral part of ensuring genuinely independent oversight. Government oversight should be determined by hundreds of thousands of our shared constituency, not a decision dwindled down to a dozen members of the political class.
2. Lack of enforcement power
   a. Current legislation creates an Inspector General who issues a public decision, including recommendations, on the merits of complaints. The Inspector General would state recommendations and reasoning if the entity should consider the matter further; modify or cancel an action; alter a rule, practice, or ruling; explain in detail the administrative action in question; and/or rectify an Delaware's State Auditor's Office already has the statutory authority to issue such recommendations to the General Assembly and Governor, however it does not have enforcement power. Creating a new office that is also denied this power makes the aforementioned recommendations weak.

Despite these observations, we support the legislature's efforts to improve our state's accountability and transparency with broad oversight of Delaware's state agencies defined as any office, department, board, commission, committee, school district, board of education, and all public bodies created by the Delaware Constitution or by an act of the General Assembly. Currently the Office of the Auditor of Accounts does not have the statutory authority to audit the General Assembly. In addition, we continue to request independent counsel (in lieu of an appointed Deputy Attorney General) to negate conflicts of interest especially concerning those that arise when conducting audits of the Department of Justice.

A more efficient and economical approach would be to instead amend Title 29 pertaining to this office, so that it can be more effective in its approach to eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse, and to expand the services provided by the State Auditor's Office and its professional staff.

Thank you for your time and consideration on this matter and thank you for your work to ensure Delawareans receive the oversight they deserve. My staff and I are happy to provide additional information to understand how implementing these functions in the State Auditor's Office would be a more efficient and economical use of resources based on our history of conducting the proposed oversight.

Kathy McGuiness is Delaware’s state auditor.