DOJ OIG Teams Honored by CIGIE

Eight teams from the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG) were honored for their accomplishments today at the 17^th annual inspector general community awards ceremony.

The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) awarded this year’s Alexander Hamilton Award -- the highest honor bestowed by the inspector general community -- to the DOJ OIG Witness Security (WitSec) Program Review Team “in recognition of the team’s significant contributions to national security and public safety during an audit of the Department of Justice’s handling of known or suspected terrorists admitted into the Federal Witness Security Program.” The award highlights achievements in improving the integrity, efficiency, and effectiveness of Executive Branch agency operations.

This is the second consecutive year a team from DOJ OIG has won the Alexander Hamilton Award. The WitSec team included DOJ OIG members from the San Francisco Regional Audit Office, the Chicago Regional Audit Office, and Audit Headquarters in Washington. A public summary of the report for which the team was honored is available on the DOJ OIG’s website at:  http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2013/a1323.pdf.

CIGIE also awarded the Barry R. Snyder Joint Award to the Boston Marathon Bombing Team, consisting of OIG personnel from the Offices of the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community, Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Justice, and Department of Homeland Security, in recognition of their collaborative work in conducting a joint independent review of the U.S. Government’s sharing and handling of information leading up to the Boston Marathon Bombing.” The unclassified summary of the report is available on the DOJ OIG’s website at: http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2014/s1404.pdf.

Other DOJ OIG teams and personnel receiving awards were:

• An OIG team from the Chicago Regional Audit Office received an Award for Excellence for the OIG’s audit in recognition of the team’s outstanding efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the FBI’s management of terrorist watchlist nominations (http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2014/a1416.pdf);
• An OIG team from the Philadelphia Regional Audit Office received an Award for Excellence in Audit in recognition of the team’s outstanding diligence, creativity, and collaboration in an extremely complex audit into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ use of income-generating undercover operations (http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2013/a1336.pdf);
• A team including members from the OIG’s Philadelphia Regional Audit Office and Audit Headquarters in Washington received an Award for Excellence in Audit in recognition of the team’s outstanding collaborative work on an audit that identified significant deficiencies in Big Brothers Big Sisters of America’s management of $23 million in DOJ grant funds (http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2013/g7013006.pdf);
• An OIG Senior Special Agent from the Boston Area Investigations Office, together with the prosecution team, received an Award for Excellence in Investigations in recognition of their exceptional dedication and professionalism over 20 years in bringing to justice fugitive gangster James “Whitey” Bulger for 11 murders, extortion, and other crimes
• An Evaluations and Inspections Division team received an Award for Excellence in Evaluations in recognition of the team’s outstanding work on the review of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Fusion Center (http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2014/e1402.pdf).
• A DOJ OIG team, in collaboration with team members from other agencies, receiving the Award for Excellence-Special Act for their work on the CIGIE Grant Reform Working Group Team.