Inspectors General

Inspectors General: Duty, Authority, Integrity examines the firsthand experiences and insights of practitioners who work in an omnipresent yet little understood government watchdog institution, the Office of Inspector General (OIG). OIGs continuously monitor and ensure accountability of public employees, contractors, and beneficiaries within their jurisdiction. Although OIGs were originally not found outside of military settings, since the mid-1970s, they are now an established part of most federal executive agencies in the United States, as well as state and local governments. They are tasked with fighting waste, fraud, and abuse, and improving the efficacy of Medicare, Medicaid, among over a hundred other HHS programs. Yet most US Master of Public Administration programs, political science departments, and law schools do not teach about OIGs as an important mechanism of ethics, accountability, and oversight. They are relatively understudied despite their ubiquitousness and impact.

This book presents chapters authored by leading academics and practitioners to provide a comprehensive and in-depth overview of the institution, and its history, design, challenges, and successes.

Inspectors General: Duty, Authority, Integrity is essential reading for those working in public administration or political science; legal scholars; government consultants; healthcare providers; and those who study public management, government accountability and oversight, democratic control of the executive branch, institutional design, and public agency performance. Faculty members would find it invaluable not only as a collection of academic research but also consider its use for master’s level and doctoral classes. Additionally, professionals in the world of federal, state, and local OIGs, compliance officers, as well as those in positions of oversight generally, would have an interest in this book.