The Board of Supervisors-appointed panel looking into potential inefficiencies and mismanagement within county government is considering whether the county should hire a permanent employee tasked with looking into potential inefficiencies and mismanagement within county government.
The Loudoun Government Reform Commission, established in January 2012 with members chosen by supervisors, told the board Wednesday that it will study the pros and cons of the county hiring an inspector general.
Loudoun County had an inspector general for much of the 1990s, though, according to board Chairman Scott York (R-At Large), that “[didn’t] run very well at all.”
“It’s one thing to hire an IG, it’s another how that individual is used in county government,” York said.
Government Reform Commission Chairman Tom Julia said his group began studying the possibility of bringing on a county inspector general this week. Julia said the commission would be examining whether there are significant benefits of having an inspector general and what that person would be hired to do – whether it would be strictly for fiscal matters, or fiscal and ethical concerns.
“I do anticipate we’ll come back rather quickly on that recommendation to you,” Julia said, listing the end of 2013’s first quarter as a target date.
Supervisor Ken Reid (R-Leesburg), who has touched on the inspector general topic numerous times during board meetings, asked Julia how quick his commission could provide a recommendation. Reid wondered whether the reform group could make a suggestion sooner than the end of March, given there may be a budgetary effect.
Julia said it would be “highly difficult” to get a recommendation sooner than the end of the first quarter.
“Quite literally, we took it up for the first time yesterday,” Julia said Wednesday.
Nearby Montgomery County, Md., has an inspector general charged with detecting and preventing fraud, waste and abuse in county government operations, according to that county’s website.
Please read the original article at the Loudoun Times website.
