Welcome back to the podcast, bribe, swindle, or steel. I'm Alexandra Ragi. Today we're

talking about inspectors general, that is, the politically independent employees within

U.S. federal agencies responsible for investigating wrongdoing within their agency. My guest is Danielle Brian.

Danielle is the executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, Pogo. Pogo is a nonpartisan

independent watchdog that investigates government corruption, misconduct, and conflicts of interest,

and works towards more accountable and ethical government.

Poco's excellent work has resulted in the passage of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, the Freedom of Information Reform Act, and the Inspector's General

Enhancement Act.

Danielle, thank you for joining me.

Thank you for having me.

For our non-American listeners, could you start by describing the origins, at least in the U.S., and the role of inspectors general?

I'm not sure that to everyone listening will be familiar with us.

The original history goes back to George Washington's Army.

So our earliest inspectors general were actually military positions.

Their job was to work on efficiency and accountability within the ranks of the military. But in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal,

as well as investigations into overreach by the FBI, you may have heard, for example,

how the FBI had been spying on Martin Luther King.

There were inquiries that found there were overreaches and really misconduct by many different

federal agencies. The Congress decided they wanted to create statutory inspectors general

in federal agencies. And the purpose of those offices was to be an independent watchdog.

They both would report to the head of the agency, but also directly to the Congress. There's

nothing else like them in the federal government in that they're sort of dual-hatted in their

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