Lawmakers and government watchdogs have stepped up their calls for the White House to fill the State Department’s inspector general position which has been vacant since January 2008.

 

The Government Accountability Office and elected officials on Capitol Hill say it’s been long past due for President Barack Obama to choose an independent official to keep watch over the State Department’s spending.

 

For the past three years, the State Department has gotten by with an interim IG, Harold Geisel, who retired from the Foreign Service in 2001 after a long diplomatic career that included serving as U.S. ambassador to Mauritius. He first served as the State Department’s acting inspector general in 1994. He returned to the supposedly temporary post on June 2, 2008. State Department officials reportedly have been loath to okay a new permanent IG by the White House, preferring instead to allow Geisel to remain in charge of the office.

 

The last State Department IG, Howard Krongard, resigned after allegations that he had blocked investigations into Iraq-related contract fraud and alleged arms smuggling by Blackwater Worldwide.

 

The open post at the State Department is one of 11 unfilled inspector general appointments at major federal departments and agencies, including the departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Labor and Housing and Urban Development.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Vacant State Department Inspector General Position Draws Criticism (by R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post)

Harold Geisel Biography (State Department)