IG Council’s Working Group Endeavors for More ‘Comprehensive’ DEIA Research
The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) released a roadmap detailing its plan to increase diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) both within the oversight community and the federal government as a whole.
An Inspector General (IG) office now has the option of tagging reports specifically related to DEIA issues when publishing documents to Oversight.gov. This tagging feature will allow for more comprehensive and up-to-date research going forward. But efforts to disseminate tried and true actions in expanding DEIA initiatives aren’t confined to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) community.
A CIGIE working group established last year to address DEIA issues released a compendium this week that details DEIA initiatives and the reports from across the federal government. The key goal of the release is to inform stakeholders of DEIA efforts.
“The purpose of the compendium is three-fold: First, readers can increase their awareness of DEIA projects across the IG community,” the working group stated in the compendium. “Second, we believe the document can be used to discuss, learn about, and generate project ideas for OIGs. Finally, the work group believes this is only a start—future OIG projects uploaded to oversight.gov will have DEIA tags that will allow more comprehensive and up-to-date research going forward.”
In addition to trends in promotions and professional development, the compendium also includes efforts in recruitment, hiring, and staffing for agencies, and subsequently the effectiveness of human resources (HR) offices at agencies. In fact, the Justice Department’s OIG report revealed that in 2021, the department was unable to hire qualified candidates for vacant positions due to HR policies that were “dated, incomplete, and disorganized."
CIGIE also outlined in its strategic plan for fiscal years (FY) 2023-2027. Its goal to increase awareness, knowledge, understanding of DEIA principles through activities and training, and highlights an evaluation of the DEIA advancements within the Council's workforce.
However, despite the efforts of the working group and the OIG community as a whole to implement more DEIA initiatives, obstacles remain. The working group noted that unfilled IG positions across government pose a threat to the OIG community's ability to function effectively.
According to the Project on Government Oversight, the absence of permanent IGs in some offices weakens the independent checks on federal agencies and hinders the implementation of long-term reforms. As of August 2022, there are 13 vacant IG roles across the government. The Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General has gone 2412 days without a leader. The Department of the Treasury Office of the Inspector General has gone 1144 days without a leader. The Federal Communications Commission Office of the Inspector General has gone 932 days without a leader. And the State Department Office of the Inspector General has gone 824 days without a leader.
