You might hear that train a-comin’, but this ain’t no Folsom Prison Blues — the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is going full throttle with an investigation into how Metro treats its inspectors general.
Chairman James Comer (R-KY) announced the investigation Friday.
Comer’s letter to WMATA Chairman Paul Smedberg alleged that “Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has failed to properly cooperate with its Office of Inspector General (OIG). The investigation was initiated after WMATA recently saw its second IG depart in just the past two years.”
In the letter, Comer said the OIG “must be provided the autonomy it has been granted under federal law. The Committee is requesting a briefing, documents, and information to ensure WMATA management is not interfering with the OIG’s critical work.”
The IG acts as an internal watchdog that is tasked with investigating and exposing “waste, fraud, and abuse,” Comer wrote.
This comes after the “forced resignation” of IG Rene Febles in November of last year.
He resigned after an audit by the OIG found that WMATA was failing to “exercise procurement and HR independence in accordance with the [Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.]” The February audit also found that there was “abnormal” activity within the transit system’s network that allowed noncitizens, specifically from Russia, to access WMATA directories and systems.
“In other words, Febles found WMATA management failed to provide the OIG with the statutory autonomy it was accorded by a law that will send over $1 billion in federal funding to WMATA, atop $2.4 billion in pandemic relief funds it had recently been awarded by Congress,” Comer said in the statement.
Febles resigned a day later after discovering the transit agency’s board planned to replace him.
“We are concerned that WMATA is not sufficiently willing to accommodate robust oversight from its OIG. WMATA’s actions since Febles’s departure further underscore the need for our investigation.
Following IG Febles’s departure in November, WMATA named as Acting IG a lawyer from a firm to which WMATA reportedly paid over $2 million in consulting fees.
This despite … public comments that the WMATA board ‘fully supports’ the role of the inspector general’s office and has ‘ensured that the office has the independence necessary to carry out their duties and responsibilities without interference or undue influence,'” Comer said.
Comer also said that the lack of independence and autonomy within the office of the Inspector General is due to the IG “not receiving sufficient cooperation and support from WMATA, yielding a serious lack of accountability and transparency.”
The full letter to Smedberg is available online.
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