Hillary Clinton’s Watchdog Had Something No Other Secretary Of State Ever Had

One congressional leader is saying there could be a big problem with the group that was tasked with holding Hillary Clinton accountable during her time as secretary of state.

Senate Judiciary Chariman Chuck Grassley sent a letter to Chair of Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency as well as Secretary of State John Kerry with questions about the State Department’s inspector general during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.

The State Department IG had an interim head for more than five years, and Grassley want to know whether Clinton was involved in keeping the position temporary.

Grassley called the absence “egregious” and pointed out that the temporary IG was there for Clinton’s entire term, making her the only secretary of state to never sit under a full-fledged watchdog since the IG was created in 1957.

“Every agency needs a permanent, independent inspector general,” Grassley said in a statement. “The position is too important to assign to a placeholder.  An acting inspector general doesn’t have the mandate to lead, and he or she might not be able to withstand pushback from an agency that doesn’t want to cooperate with oversight.”

Grassley has requested a slew of record related to the temporary inspector, Harold Geisel, and why he was in charge for so long. He also pointed out that in the short time since a permanent inspector general was put in place, substantive revelations have come out about a top Hillary aide inappropriately influencing an ambassador nomination.

“The Obama Administration should answer for why it allowed that to happen,” Grassley said in a statement. “There’s been no transparency on the reason for the lack of an appointment for so long. “We’ll never know the extent of the damage to good governance caused by this lapse, but it’s fair to say some of the problems exposed lately probably could have been prevented with a permanent inspector general in place.”

Via Daily Caller

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[VIDEO] Watchdog: Fake ObamaCare applicants allowed to keep coverage

Via: Fox News

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Tax Scofflaws Get Millions In Contract Awards From IRS

Corporations that owed back taxes illegally received nearly $19 million from contracts with the Internal Revenue Service in 2012 and 2013, a government watchdog reported Wednesday.

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The IRS is prohibited from contracting with corporations that owe the government taxes, but that didn’t stop the agency from awarding 17 delinquent companies $18.8 million for 57 contracts, according to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report.

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“Federal contractors who abuse the tax system cause significant loss of tax revenue, while at the same time benefitting from taxes paid by compliant individuals and corporations,” the report said. “When the IRS conducts business with contractors that do not pay their federal taxes, it conveys a conflicting message in relation to its mission to ensure compliance with tax laws.”

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One corporation also received three contracts worth more than $67,000 even though it had a felony conviction.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012 “prohibited the IRS from using appropriated funds to enter into a contract with a corporation that has certain federal tax debt and/or felony convictions,” the report said.

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IRS officials told the inspector general they either didn’t remember receiving the guidance the Department of the Treasury issued on Feb. 2, 2012, regarding the new law, or they didn’t understand it “because they received no training on these new requirements.”

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In any case, “TIGTA found that the IRS did not have effective controls in place to prevent the award of contracts to corporations with certain federal tax debt and/or felony convictions,” the report said.

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Investigators estimated that the IRS didn’t require corporations to report tax debt or felony convictions for 94 percent of all awarded contracts. In fact, the IRS doesn’t have a definition for federal tax debt and doesn’t proactively check to ensure prospective contractors are in compliance with appropriation law, investigators found.

Via: Daily Caller

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SEN. PAT ROBERTS AND REP. PETER ROSKAM INTRODUCE OBAMACARE WATCHDOG BILLS

This week, Senator 

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS)

57%

 and Representative 

Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL)

introduced companion bills to the Senate and House respectively that would name an Inspector General to investigate Obamacare overspending and abuses.Since the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), the Obama administration has made 31 significant changes in the implementation of the act without going to Congress to obtain statutory authority.

With these bills, lawmakers are finally attempting to reassert some constitutional control over the executive branch’s usurpations of its legislative authority.

It is unclear whether these bills will pass both houses. If they do, an Obama veto is likely, and the ball would be in Congress’s court to secure the 2/3 vote necessary to override such a veto.

The bills were proposed as the nation awaits the Supreme Court’s King v. Burwelldecision, expected next month, which could completely unravel the implementation of the Affordable Care Act by voiding the issuance of Obamacare tax credits to residents of the 37 states that chose not to establish their own health care exchanges.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Roskam said his bill, H.R. 2400, would “create a Special Inspector General for Monitoring the Affordable Care Act (SIGMA). The bill is supported by all Majority members of the Oversight Subcommittee and all key oversight subcommittee chairs, as well as a wide array of prominent conservative advocacy organizations.”

Via: Breitbart

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