§408 Additional provisions with respect to the Inspector General of the Department of Defense

Summary

A person on active duty or in the reserves may not be made Inspector General of the Department of Defense. For audits, investigations, or subpoenas that need access to sensitive operational plans, intelligence, counterintelligence, certain ongoing national-security criminal probes, or any other information whose release would seriously harm national security, the Inspector General must follow the Secretary of Defense’s direction and control. The Secretary can stop the Inspector General from starting, continuing, or finishing such work, from seeing that information, or from issuing subpoenas if the Secretary decides it is needed to protect national security. If the Secretary uses that power, the Inspector General must send a statement about it within 30 days to the Senate Committees on Armed Services and on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the House Committees on Armed Services and on Oversight and Reform, and other relevant congressional committees or subcommittees. The Secretary must send a statement of reasons to the same committees within 30 days after the Inspector General’s statement. The Inspector General is the main adviser to the Secretary on preventing and finding fraud, waste, and abuse. The Inspector General can start and run audits and investigations across the Department, set audit and investigation policies, look into fraud found by other audits, oversee criminal-investigation program policy, check that auditors follow rules, monitor responses to audits, request help from other DoD units, avoid duplicate work, and arrange external peer reviews under government auditing standards. The Inspector General must quickly report suspected violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice to the appropriate military secretary or the Secretary of Defense. For some purposes, members of the Armed Forces count as DoD employees, except Coast Guard members serving under another department count as that department’s employees. Each semiannual report must be sent by the Secretary to the same congressional committees and must include the number and types of contract audits and any DoD audit agency that failed or is overdue for an external peer review. A provision in title 18 (section 1385) does not apply to audits and investigations done by or for the Inspector General. The Inspector General appoints a General Counsel who is the office’s chief lawyer, serves at the Inspector General’s pleasure, and has an office and staff chosen by the Inspector General. The Inspector General can issue subpoenas for witnesses, but should use other means to get testimony from federal employees. Subpoenas can be enforced by a U.S. district court if ignored, and the Inspector General must notify the Attorney General 7 days before issuing any subpoena.