Defunding of Council of Inspectors General
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Statement of Mark Lee Greenblatt on Defunding of Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency
Bethesda, MD, September 30, 2025 – The Office of Management and Budget's decision to defund the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) is a continuation of the destruction of the Inspector General community.
I had the honor of chairing CIGIE and serving alongside 14,000 dedicated professionals in the Inspector General community, all committed to root out fraud, waste, and abuse. I am very concerned by the administration's latest attempt to dismantle the independent oversight mechanisms that serve as essential guardrails against corruption and mismanagement. CIGIE provides critical support to IGs across 72 federal agencies, training, investigative resources, coordination on cross-cutting issues, and a unified voice for independent oversight. Without this infrastructure, I fear that individual IGs will be isolated, their effectiveness diminished, and their ability to protect taxpayer interests severely compromised. Defunding CIGIE eliminates the infrastructure that enables Inspectors General to coordinate, share best practices, and hold federal agencies accountable across government.
CIGIE is a good investment for the American people as it trains the auditors, evaluators, and investigators who root out waste, fraud, and abuse of our tax dollars. The OIG community’s auditors, evaluators, and investigators are the tip of the spear in our collective fight against fraud, and CIGIE is the tool that sharpens that spear. And OMB just shut it down.
In addition, CIGIE provides unique transparency for the American people, illuminating how their tax dollars are spent and where the problems are. CIGIE runs the website Oversight.gov, which houses reports from virtually all of the 70+ Offices of Inspector General, and operates 28 OIG websites, which means shuttering CIGIE will eviscerate transparency in our federal government.
Make no mistake: this decision is not about budget efficiency nor streamlining government. I believe the animus against CIGIE originally stems from the Integrity Committee’s investigation into DHS IG Joe Cuffari, which found that he engaged in serious misconduct. Over the last few years, Cuffari and his minions have led a long-term and highly destructive campaign to undermine CIGIE and the IG community. I believe this is a direct outgrowth of that dishonest effort. The American people can thank DHS IG Joe Cuffari and his henchmen, as well as Members of Congress and their staffs who disingenuously claim to support government accountability, for this ongoing assault on the OIG community and this integral part of American oversight.
I've spent my career in federal oversight because I believe in honest government and accountability to the American people. As the CIGIE Chair, I met with numerous delegations from other countries. They would invariably ask how they could implement a system like the OIG community and the structure like the Council. I would beam with pride as an American as those foreign officials marveled at the system of accountability in our federal government. It should raise alarm bells for every American that that infrastructure is being dismantled brick by brick.
Those serving in Offices of Inspector General across our government are nonpartisan professionals who take seriously their oath to pursue facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor. CIGIE provides crucial infrastructure for those professionals, and the American people deserve the transparency and accountability that independent oversight ensures.
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