COVINGTON & BURLING LLP ..to the Inspector General in open sessions," "review and comment on the Inspector General's annual audit work plan," and "request a self-evaluation by the Inspector General." (Coogan Mem. at 2, 21.) Similarly, as noted earlier, the Coogan memorandum cites with approval the Naughton article in which Naughton declares that "an agency head 'may review and criticize' an Inspector General's performance." (Coogan Mem. at 10.) These apparently contradictory lines of argument are difficult to reconcile since a performance review is normally understood to be a form of providing "feedback" or a method to "review and criticize." Finally, the Coogan memorandum is confounding because of the assertion that "[t]he decision to evaluate an Inspector General is a political question that must involve the agency head... Congress..., the Office of Management and Budget... and the Executive Council on Integrity and Efficiency." (Coogan Mem. at 21) (emphasis added). As with many other propositions advanced in the Coogan memorandum, this insistence that undertaking a performance review of an IG is a "political decision" to be negotiated between the executive and legislative branches is bereft of citation to any supporting legal authority. The nonpartisan design of the IGA" and the applicable OMB guidance1 strongly indicate that the decision to conduct a performance appraisal of an IG should be based on sound management principles, not a "political decision." Thomas S. Williamson, Jr. 17 5 U.S.C. App. 3 § 8G(d). 18 Memorandum For Heads of Designated Federal Entities, M-93-01, dated November 13, 1992, at 4. JANUARY TRANSCRIPTS OF THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD AND THE PERFORMANCE REVIEW COMMITTEE OF THE LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION COPY ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REVIEWS COMMITTEE CLOSED SESSION Friday, January 27, 2006 9:10 a.m. The Melrose Hotel 2430 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Lillian R. BeVier, Chairman Herbert S. Garten Thomas R. Meites BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Frank Strickland, Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes David Hall Michael D. McKay Bernice Phillips Florentino A. Subia Ernestine P. Watlington (via telephone) STAFF AND PUBLIC PRESENT: Helaine M. Barnett, President Richard (Kirt) West, Inspector General Diversified Reporting Services, Inc. 1101 Sixteenth Street, NW Second Floor Washington, DC 20036 (202) 467-9200 50 extremely informative and interesting, and we congratulate you. MS. BARNETT: Thank you so very much. CHAIRMAN BEVIER: Yes. You're welcome. (A discussion was held off the record.) CHAIRMAN BEVIER: The Annual Performance Reviews Committee meeting is back in session, and we're going to begin to address the evaluation of the Inspector General, and as our as the summary of our interviews, I hope, makes clear, we have received quite different evaluations of the Inspector General from his own staff, who seems who seem to give him high marks on a lot of issues that would seem to matter if you're evaluating his management and his ability to set the direction of his office and generate an atmosphere in which they feel free to do their work and have confidence in him. That is at least the impression that I got from the people on his staff that we talked to. The impression of management is wildly different, and what I think it's important for this committee to do is to keep in mind that it's not our Diversified Reporting Services, Inc. 51 job to evaluate his substantive agenda, I guess one would say, although one might raise issues, conceivably, about his priorities in terms of spending so many of his resources investigating what happens in Washington, D.C., as opposed to what happens out in the field. He's got reasons for doing that, and I don't even know whether it's something that we have the right to raise issues about or questions about. I think that what we discern from pretty well summarized in the summary that I gave you of our interviews. as Just as you were speaking, oddly enough, we, a board, have had much more contact with the substantive work of the Inspector General than I think Diversified Reporting Services, Inc. 52 we have of LSC's staff and management. I actually know a lot about what the IG has done, and I have personal views on the adequacy of his work, in a way I don't have of Helaine's. So, I'd add to the mix we're bringing to this evaluation our own personal experience with the Inspector General and his work. CHAIRMAN BEVIER: Right. I think that that's true. I think we - clearly, we could do that. You have received from him his own self-evaluation, in which, on all measures, he has put what - he has put his interpretation of what he's been trying to do and how he's done it for our review. the interviews that we had and of our evaluation did not put things in the same categories that he did, but I'm not sure that that makes a difference in terms of what it is we're going to going to draw. the conclusions we're So, I think it's time for us to talk about that, and I'd solicit the views of the committee. MR. STRICKLAND: You mean in terms of how Diversified Reporting Services, Inc. 1101 Sixteenth Street, NW Second Floor Washington, DC 20036 |