Protecting Those Who Blow the Whistle on Government Wrongdoing
Statement of Glenn A. Fine Principal Deputy Inspector General, Performing the Duties of the Inspector General, Department of Defense for a Hearing on Protecting Those Who Blow the Whistle on Government Wrongdoing Before the Subcommittee on Government Operations Committee on Oversight and Reform U.S. House of Representatives January 28, 2020 Chairman Connolly, Ranking Member Meadows, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to appear before you today for this hearing on the contributions of federal whistleblowers and the need to protect them from reprisal. I. INTRODUCTION My testimony will focus on the important work of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) relating to whistleblowers. I am the DoD Principal Deputy Inspector General, Performing the Duties of the Inspector General, and have been serving as the head of the DoD OIG for over 4 years. Prior to this position, in addition to working as an attorney in private practice, I was the Inspector General of the Department of Justice for 11 years, from 2000 to 2011. In my testimony today, I will discuss the significant contributions of whistleblowers, why the protection of whistleblowers is so important, how the DoD OIG evaluates and investigates whistleblower disclosures and complaints of reprisal, and several best practices we have implemented at the DoD OIG to improve our timeliness and efficiency in whistleblower investigations. Specifically, my testimony discusses: • the mission and responsibilities of the DoD OIG, • the importance of whistleblowers and the need to protect them from reprisal, • examples of cases resulting from whistleblower disclosures, • the DoD OIG’s investigative processes, • best practices that the DoD OIG has implemented to improve the timeliness and efficiency of reprisal investigations, 1 • the need for DoD management to take timely corrective action on substantiated whistleblower reprisal investigations, and • the need for adequate resources to handle these important responsibilities.
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