TIL that the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity & Efficiency (CIGIE) Integrity Committee, which is charged with performing audits of IG shops & investigating complaints of IG misconduct, takes the position that all of the military service IGs are beyond their reach.
They maintain that they only have oversight over the DOD IG, but that means that the only entity overseeing some of the most important OIGs in the government is ANOTHER OIG, subject to the whims of whomever happens to be leading it.
As opposed to, say, ALL THE OTHER OIGs, ...
who are answerable to an entire committee comprised of IGs from across the government, which is NOT subject to any particular member's whim.
Let's put this in some perspective. An agency OIG is charged with an awesome responsibility. They are often a whistleblower's only ...
recourse, & if they reach a decision that there's nothing to see here, there's practically nothing you can do about it. Because of this, by design they are supposed to operate independently of the agencies they oversee, so they won't be captured by the subjects of their review.
In order to carry out this important & often unappealable work, it is important that they be subject to close oversight by an objective outside body. It is also mandatory that this objective outside body be charged with investigating whistleblower claims ABOUT THE OIG.