April 1, 2001 – September 30, 2001
Office of the Inspector General

OTHER OIG ACTIVITIES

Briefings and Training

OIG personnel regularly offer their expertise to Department components and to the governmental community and serve as instructors for various training activities. For example, during this reporting period:

• OIG investigators conducted 64 Integrity Awareness Briefings for Department employees throughout the country. These briefings are designed to educate employees about the misuse of a public official’s position for personal gain and to deter employees from committing such offenses. The briefings reached more than 1,907 employees with a message highlighting the devastating effect corruption has on both the employee and the agency.

• Investigations, with the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division, conducted a Civil Rights Investigation training conference in San Diego, California. The conference focused on procedural issues associated with investigating civil rights cases, prosecutorial issues that affect civil rights matters, a legal overview of civil rights criminal statutes, and discussion of concerns and problems associated with addressing civil rights matters. The conference was attended by OIG special agents and personnel from the USAOs for the Southern and Central Districts of California; the Border Patrol’s San Diego and El Centro Sectors; the FBI’s San Diego Field Office; and the BOP’s Office of Internal Affairs, Washington, DC, and Metropolitan Correctional Center, San Diego, California.

• At the request of the Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT), Investigations personnel met with two foreign dignitaries to discuss the function and role of the OIG within the Department. The Commander of the New South ýales Police Department, Australia, and the Chief Prosecutor in Hungary traveled to the United States to learn how federal law enforcement and prosecutorial components operate and, more specifically, to learn about control of corruption within law enforcement agencies. Investigations personnel discussed such issues as special investigative techniques, multi-agency task forces, and curbing police and judicial corruption. E&I and Audit staff also participated in the briefing.

• Investigations and E&I staff met with a Republic of Georgia Ministry of Justice official and an OPDAT representative in connection with the Department’s plan to assist the Republic of Georgia in revamping its correctional system. Investigations provided statistics concerning BOP complaints the OIG investigated and the resulting arrests and administrative actions taken against BOP employees. Investigations staff also provided information about investigative training resources and OIG investigative techniques. E&I staff discussed resources available for assistance in developing corrections procedures and provided several contacts in correctional systems.

• At the request of the BOP, a special agent from the El Paso Field Office participated in the South Central Region Community Corrections Contracting Conference. The special agent provided training information to contractors conducting investigations at major detention centers and discussed integrity issues that affect community corrections contract staff. The special agent used case examples to provide guidance on how the OIG and the community corrections staff could coordinate corruption investigations.

• The special agent in charge of the FDO participated as an instructor in the Inspector General Academy’s new Contract and Grant Fraud course for investigators in the IG community. In addition, he and Antitrust Division staff presented a training program to INS and BOP contract managers on fraud and anticompetitive practices in the construction industry.

• The OIG continues to provide support to the Inspectors General Auditor Training Institute. A member of the Audit staff serves as an instructor for the course on Federal Financial Statement Auditing. This course provides guidance for auditors performing audits required by the Chief Financial Officer Act and the Government Management Reform Act and instructs them on the use of the recently issued GAO/PCIE Financial Audit Manual, compliance with Government Auditing Standards, and audit requirements of the OMB.

• E&I and Audit staff briefed members of the House Judiciary Committee on OIG reviews of the INS and distributed executive summaries of recent work products.

• At the request of the staff of Senator Dianne Feinstein, E&I staff presented a briefing on the results of two reviews completed during this reporting period on Juvenile Repatriation Practices at Border Patrol Sectors on the Southwest Border and Unaccompanied Juveniles in INS Custody. Our findings are pertinent to Senate bill 121, introduced by Senator Feinstein, which addresses INS custody of unaccompanied juveniles.

Task Forces, Working Groups, and Committees

In addition to the work it conducts within the Department, the OIG participates in cooperative endeavors with other entities. Noteworthy activities during this reporting period are described below.

• The San Diego Field Office participates, along with the FBI, DEA, U.S. Customs Office of Internal Affairs, and Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in the San Diego Border Corruption Task Force (BCTF) that investigates allegations of corruption against federal law enforcement officials. Of the 21 ongoing BCTF investigations, 12 were initially reported to the OIG’s San Diego Field Office.

• The Tucson Field Office participates, along with the FBI, DEA, U.S. Customs Service Office of Internal Affairs, and IRS, in the Southern Arizona Corruption Task Forces in Tucson and Yuma, Arizona, that investigate allegations of corruption against federal law enforcement officials. Currently, the groups have 12 employee-related corruption matters under investigation.

• The McAllen Field Office (MCFO) participates, along with the FBI, DEA, U.S. Customs Office of Internal Affairs, IRS, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Rangers, and the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office, in the South Texas Public Corruption Task Force that investigates allegations of corruption against local and federal law enforcement officials. Currently, there are three ongoing OIG/FBI joint task force investigations targeting Department personnel accused of bribery. The MCFO representative also assists the FBI and Texas Rangers in a variety of cases, including civil rights, narcotics, and bribery investigations. In particular, the MCFO representative provided technical equipment assistance to the Texas Rangers that resulted in gathering evidence against corrupt Rio Grande Valley public officials.

• Audit continues to participate in the Department’s Financial Statement Working Group meetings. These meetings provide continuing guidance to Department components on the compilation of consolidated and component financial statements.

• Audit participated in the interagency group that revised the GAO’s Financial Audit Manual, which will be used by the IG community, GAO, and independent public accountants in performing federal financial statement audits.

• Audit continues to participate in the Federal Audit Executive Council’s Financial Statement Audit Network, which meets monthly to discuss common audit and accounting issues. The network, which includes representatives from OMB, other Executive branch agencies, GAO, and the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board, represented the PCIE while working with GAO to develop a Financial Audit Manual (FAM). Audit participated in drafting the joint GAO-PCIE FAM, issued in July 2001.

• At the request of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), E&I staff met with HHS officials to discuss the DEA’s sporadic reporting of drug registration revocations to the National Practitioners Data Bank (as required by the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1996) and its failure to report voluntary surrenders of licenses in lieu of revocations. Through a series of meetings and other communications, the OIG facilitated resolution of the problems between the DEA and HHS.

Legislation and Regulations

The IG Act directs the OIG to review proposed legislation and regulations relating to the programs and operations of the Department. Although the Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs reviews all proposed or enacted legislation that could affect the Department’s activities, the OIG independently reviews proposed legislation that affects it or legislation that relates to waste, fraud, or abuse in the Department’s programs or operations. During this reporting period, the OIG reviewed several dozen pieces of legislation, including (1) House and Senate bills to reauthorize the Department (the Senate bill contains a provision that would codify the Attorney General’s recent expansion of the OIG’s investigative jurisdiction over the FBI and DEA), (2) legislation responding to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, (3) the Department of Defense reauthorization bill regarding OIG audits of Superfund expenditures, and (4) an amendment to the Foreign Relations Authorization Act that would add OIG audits, inspections, and investigative reports to the list of exclusions from the definition of “grievance” for purposes of action under the Foreign Service Grievance Board.

Congressional Testimony

IG Fine testified before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on June 20, 2001, about the OIG’s oversight work in the FBI. He discussed the OIG’s jurisdiction to investigate allegations of misconduct in the FBI (at the time of the hearing, the Attorney General had not yet expanded the OIG’s jurisdiction in this area). He also highlighted the results of significant OIG reviews of FBI matters, including our review of allegations into improper practices in the FBI Laboratory, the handling of sensýtive intelligence information related to the Campaign Finance investigation, and our review of the FBI’s performance in uncovering the espionage activities of former Central Intelligence Agency employee Aldrich Ames. IG Fine also discussed the OIG’s ongoing reviews of the Hanssen spy matter and the belated production of documents in the Oklahoma City bombing case.

During this reporting period, the OIG responded to numerous congressional requests for information, including a request from the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs for an assessment of the Department’s top ten performance measures.

President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency Activities

The PCIE consists of the 28 Presidentially appointed IGs in the federal government. OIG staff participate in a variety of PCIE activities and serve on numerous PCIE committees and subgroups. During this reporting period, the OIG coordinated the development and publication of the PCIE and ECIE (Executive Council on Integrity and Efficiency) community’s A Progress Report to the President for FY 2000. The 75-page report highlights the significant accomplishments of federal IGs during FY 2000.

Audit staff continued to serve as the OIG’s representative to the PCIE OIG GPRA (Government Performance and Results Act) Coordinators’ Interest Group, a committee that addresses consistency issues when OIGs deal with Congress, the OMB, and GAO on GPRA issues.