Virus Spending Watchdog Says ‘Logistical Nightmares’ Hobble Work
Virus Spending Watchdog Says ‘Logistical Nightmares’ Hobble Work
(Bloomberg) -- The special inspector general in charge of monitoring Treasury and Federal Reserve coronavirus bailout funds said that his office needs additional money and staff to be able to conduct its oversight work.
Hiring “has been a conundrum in many ways,“ Brian Miller, the special inspector general for Pandemic Recovery, said Thursday. He says he has faced “logistical nightmares“ trying to get senior staff on board and needs Congress to grant him expedited hiring authority.
Miller himself was the only employee for the first month following the office’s launch in June, he said at an New York City Bar Association event. The next person to join was an unpaid intern, he said. The office now has a general counsel and a head of investigations, but a full audit team won’t be formed until early next year, according to SIGPR’s most recent quarterly report to Congress.
“SIGPR has faced significant headwinds in attempting to staff up quickly so that the office can turn its collective focus to finding and exposing fraud, waste, and abuse under the Cares Act,“ the watchdog said in its second report to Congress. “While the office has worked diligently to meet its statutory mandates with a limited roster, additional hiring authority and flexibility would provide a tremendous boost to the office’s ability to conduct critically needed oversight.”
Miller, a White House lawyer before President Donald Trump nominated him for the inspector general’s post, urged Congress to pass legislation that would allow him fast-tracked hiring authority to bypass some federal procedures that are notorious for being slow. The legislation has bipartisan backing, but has been sidelined as talks about another round of stimulus aid have stalled for weeks.
Congress has appropriated $25 million for SIGPR’s five-year life span. Miller says that money will run out by the end of this fiscal year, which runs through Sept. 30, 2021. The quarterly report requested another $25 million for the next fiscal year.
SIGPR, which is in charge of overseeing lending programs through the Federal Reserve, as well as loans and grants for airlines and defense companies, isn’t the only watchdog group struggling to conduct oversight of the federal spending related to the pandemic.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have yet to agree on a chairman for the five-member Congressional Oversight Committee, a bipartisan panel also responsible for overseeing the Treasury and central bank programs.
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