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A major part of an Inspector General’s work is to prevent the government from losing money to fraud or using it inefficiently.  While IG reports have always highlighted the millions of dollars saved...

One of the most morbid statistics in business management is the bus factor.  This name is a reference to the question “How many people would have to get hit by a bus before this project stalls due...

Unfortunately, the United States is more politically divided than it has been in recent history.  One of the effects of this is that fewer people trust the objectivity of government officials.  If a...

If an agency was absolutely determined to find out which employee reported malfeasance, how successful would they be?  It depends on how careful the employee is when speaking up – and unfortunately,...

David Apol, the current head of the Office of Government Ethics raised some eyebrows this past week when he directed government employees to avoid damaging public perception of the government’s...

Investigators often encounter descriptions of events that are totally at odds with each other in the course of their interviews.  In many cases, it can be chalked up to different perspectives; in...

If you’ve worked in an office for more than about two weeks, you understand what a purposeless business meeting can do to an office.  If you’ve got one per week, you know how it can interrupt the...

There are many things that make managing investigators different than other management roles.  For instance, investigators are more likely to be attentive to detail, and interested in adherence to...

One of the largest problems government agencies face when hiring is the hiring process itself.  There’s plenty of complaints to go around.  It is complicated.  It takes more than six months in many...