Foreign affairs panel to probe claims against State IG

The plight of State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard will be at issue at a Wednesday hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Oversight Subcommittee.

Krongard, who has been accused by whistleblowers in his office and by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee of blocking investigations that could embarrass the administration, will not appear.

The only scheduled witness is Government Accountability Office Comptroller General David Walker, who will discuss an assessment of the State IG's office that GAO released in March.

While Krongard is accused of protecting the interests of the White House, the GAO report attributes concerns about the independence of the State IG to the organization of the office.

The report questions the department's practice of using management personnel to temporarily head the IG's office before returning to their regular jobs and the reliance on Foreign Service officers to lead inspections.

And the report says the department's use of both the IG's office and the Bureau of Diplomatic Security to probe alleged fraud by State employees limits the independence of investigations.

Krongard's opponents say he refused to let investigators go to Iraq to probe issues such as problems with the construction of the U.S. Embassy.

Krongard has not responded in detail, but officials in the IG's office have said that with a special inspector general already in Iraq, they wanted to avoid spending on duplicative work.

Krongard got backing Thursday from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who told the Oversight and Government Reform Committee that the IG's office is "very active."

Rice also offered the first public confirmation that the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, a group of IGs, is investigating Krongard, as reported by National Journal. "We will use their help," Rice said of the council.