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In the Spotlight
On June 10, 2003, the United States General Accounting Office (GAO) issued its report responding to an October 21, 2002 request from Senator Charles E. Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, for the agency to review the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG). In performing its review of the OIG (from October 2002 through May 2003), the GAO interviewed over 200 current and former OIG employees, examined thousands of pages of documents, replicated a web-based employee survey conducted by the OIG in January 2003, spoke to representatives from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and various Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFUCUs), and interviewed three current or former inspectors general from other federal agencies.
As generally noted in the report, '[d]uring her tenure, the Inspector General [Janet Rehn- quist] took a number of actions that damaged her credibility and ultimately created an atmosphere of anxiety and distrust within certain segments of the OIG.' More specifically, the GAO pointed out, '[c]oncerns about her independence ' including those arising from her decision to delay a politically sensitive audit and her intervention in ongoing cases in response to external requests ' and personnel changes she initiated among senior management, disillusioned members of her senior staff, headquarters employees, and employees working in two OIG units.' Report, at 2.
The GAO report discussed four specific matters that led it to reach these conclusions. The three most critical are summarized below:
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