Cuffari has transformed DHS OIG to a model workplace," the agency's public affairs unit said in an emailed statement. "As he promised during his confirmation process and hearing, Dr. However, it touted agency leaders' relationship with workers, saying they give the department good grades on surveys, and Cuffari has offered to meet with small groups to receive employee feedback. In response, the public affairs office for the watchdog agency said it was limited in its ability to address the allegations due to several ongoing investigations. The inspector general is supposed to make sure that the tax dollars are spent as Congress intended.īut watchdog leaders and DHS "were overly cozy," one source said. DHS has an annual budget of tens of billions of dollars and includes agencies such as the U.S. NPR agreed to withhold their names because they fear professional retaliation.Ĭuffari and his top leaders showed deference to DHS and its components, according to the sources who spoke anonymously with NPR. Seven sources with knowledge of the inner workings of the agency who spoke with NPR said the inspector general has fueled organizational dysfunction and abused his power. The departures often stemmed from the lawyers' unease with how Joseph Cuffari managed the watchdog role. "You lose the institutional knowledge and expertise," one of these sources said. The pattern has hurt the attorneys' abilities to establish and maintain relationships throughout DHS and their own agency, a key element to oversight work, several sources said. That's left career staff assigned to the watchdog's Office of Counsel to contend with a revolving door that has hindered oversight of DHS, the government's third largest Cabinet department. More than 30 lawyers have left during that time, the sources and records show. The leader of the Department of Homeland Security's watchdog agency took office more than three years ago and since then the majority of lawyers in the Office of Counsel have left, according to multiple sources and internal documents reviewed by NPR. 6 attack on the Capitol has highlighted concerns about the Inspector General Office at the Department of Homeland Security.
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