Steve Linick is officially out as Inspector General at the State Department (i.e., it's been 30 days since Trump announced his firing). Let's take a moment to reflect on the past three months of government oversight (and lack thereof).
Each IG heads an independent department within an executive agency to keep that agency honest -- audit the operations, discover and investigate waste, fraud, abuse, misconduct.
There are 74 offices of IGs; currently, 13 IG positions are vacant (according to oversight.gov). Four of those have been vacant for over three years. Six nominees for posts await Senate confirmation.
For example, we have no permanent IG at Treasury, DOE, HHS, Defense, the CIA...
For Cabinet agencies, the President appoints Inspectors General with Senate confirmation. Only the President can fire them. He's chosen to take out five during the pandemic.
April 3: Michael Atkinson was fired as IG for the Intelligence Community because Trump lost "fullest confidence" in him. Atkinson handled the Ukraine whistleblower complaint.
April 7: Glenn Fine, who had served as acting IG at Defense and headed a watchdog panel overseeing coronavirus relief, was replaced.
May 1: Christi Grimm, who had served as acting IG at Health and Human Services, was replaced after she released a report detailing testing and supply shortages in hospitals
May 15: Steve Linick, IG at the State Department was fired on a Friday night. Linick had been investigating arms sales to Saudi Arabia in possible violation of a congressional hold and Sec. Pompeo's misuse of government resources
May 16: Mitch Behm, who had served as acting IG at the Transportation Department is replaced. There is an ongoing investigation into Sec. Chao's possible conflicts of interest.
There are a million things going on right now. It's hard to know where to look. That's often true, which is why we need people who are charged with looking--critically, thoughtfully, deeply. We need them, and they're being taken out over and over again.
