House Oversight Committee: WH Ignored Suggested Reforms Worth $67 Billion

In addition to leaving Inspector General posts at key agencies vacant, a March 5 report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform claims the Obama administration has ignored 16,906 recommendations from 73 agency OIG’s that could potentially save taxpayers $67 billion per year.

“This report chronicles $67 billion in unimplemented reforms that non-partisan Inspectors General have identified,” said Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA). “President Obama should listen to the recommendations of his Administration’s own Inspector Generals and work with Congress to implement common sense spending cuts that target wasteful and poorly performing programs instead of settling for the furloughs and service disruptions happening under the sequester.”

The report showed the following findings:

Federal agencies did not implement 15,784 recommendations from the IGs in FY2011, worth more than $55 billion to taxpayers.

In January 2009, former Chairman Waxman found that federal agencies could have saved taxpayers $25.9 billion by implementing open IG recommendations. Today, there are 16,906 unimplemented recommendations worth $67 billion to taxpayers. 

The numbers of unimplemented recommendations and unrealized savings for taxpayers have increased every year since 2009.

The report contends the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and USAID ranked first, second, and fourth among agencies with the most unimplemented recommendations in 2012. All these agencies still have IG vacancies.