DHS IG sees 'no value' in GAO report urging internal collaboration on Coast Guard investigations

The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general this week rejected a Government Accountability Office report on how the Coast Guard Investigative Service and DHS OIG could address overlaps in their respective investigative jurisdictions, saying that the suggestions would “diminish” his agency’s authority.  

“Your draft report’s failure to acknowledge DHS OIG’s primacy over internal department investigate bodies devalues DHS OIG’s independence, as envisioned by Congress and enumerated in the Inspector General Act and instead treats DHS OIG as just one body among equals insofar as department oversight is concerned,” wrote IG Joseph Cuffari in a letter attached to the Wednesday report. “I am searching to understand why GAO has elected to ignore these foundations and is issuing a report that, if acted upon, would significantly weaken independent oversight of the department.” 

Because the Coast Guard is a component agency of DHS, both CGIS and the DHS OIG can investigate fraud, waste and abuse that involves military personnel and criminal misconduct by employees.

GAO investigators reported that OIG officials said they should get right of first refusal on all DHS complaints, including those submitted to CGIS. On the other hand, officials from CGIS said they follow a 2003 agreement between the two agencies, but the officials acknowledged that it’s “unclear” in the document about which complaints are required to be referred. 

Between October 2018 and May 2024, CGIS received about 10,600 complaints while the OIG got around 1,300 complaints that were related to the Coast Guard, which was less than one percent of the total number of complaints it received during that period. 

GAO recommended that the OIG clarify roles and responsibilities for referring Coast Guard complaints, but the IG responded that the report offers “no value.” GAO countered that the OIG’s position highlights the problem.

“We found that the Coast Guard and DHS OIG are operating in a state of confusion, which risks the ineffective or inappropriate use of resources and needs to be rectified,” investigators wrote. “Recommending that DHS OIG and the Coast Guard clarify roles and responsibilities, memorialize those in policy and communicate regularly to deconflict investigative activities does not negate or diminish DHS OIG’s critical role in conducting oversight of the Coast Guard.” 

GAO also recommended that CGIS clear up roles and responsibilities for complaint referrals. DHS concurred with that and other suggestions but also argued that it has already addressed some of them through a July 2025 update to its procedures for sharing investigative information with the OIG. GAO responded that the update, however, refers to the 2003 agreement between CGIS and the OIG that officials considered to be ambiguous. 

Investigators also flagged that the OIG was not consistently meeting its timeline to complete audits, whether related to the Coast Guard or not, within 397 days. But they noted that OIG officials accused DHS of slowwalking access to agency data systems that are needed as part of investigations. 

Cuffari himself has been no stranger to controversy while serving as the DHS inspector general. A panel of IGs and other federal investigative officials in October 2024 substantiated allegations of misconduct against Cuffari and recommended that the president take “appropriate action, up to and including removal,” but Joe Biden did not discipline him. Also, Cuffari thus far has been spared from President Donald Trump’s mass firings of IGs. 

Wednesday’s report comes after GAO earlier this month issued two reports finding that the Coast Guard’s efforts to combat sexual misconduct in the wake of Operation Fouled Anchor — an internal review of mishandled sexual assault allegations at the service’s academy from the late 1980s to 2006  — are lagging. The service branch has been under pressure from lawmakers and advocates to address sexual assault and harassment after failing to disclose Operation Fouled Anchor to Congress until 2023. 

A 2024 House report found that CGIS “was not a properly functioning law enforcement agency and lacked sufficient resources to conduct thorough investigations during the period investigated by Operation Fouled Anchor.”