OIG Notes A Milestone In Its History

“Our job is to tell it like it is.”

Inspector General Phyllis Fong was describing one of the purposes of USDA’s Office of Inspector General. The Department recently commemorated the 25^th anniversary of the Inspector General Act of 1978.

Actually, USDA’s OIG is older than that--16 years older, in fact. According to Paula Hayes, assistant inspector general for planning and special projects, it was created in 1962 after an agricultural fraud scheme, known as the “Billie Sol Estes scandal,” was uncovered. “When OIG was administratively established by then-Secretary Orville Freeman,” she pointed out, “it was the first nonmilitary OIG in the federal government.”

There are a lot of good stories to share about the history and accomplishments of USDA’s Office of Inspector General--and these current and former OIG officials are doing just that. Gathered at a recent ceremony held to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Inspector General Act of 1978 are (L to R) current Inspector General Phyllis Fong, former Inspector General Robert Beuley who served in that position from 1986-88, Ted Haaser, the first permanent OIG employee at USDA as well as the first permanent employee in a non-military office of inspector general in the entire federal government, and former Inspector General Leon Snead who served in that position from 1990-93. --Photo by Alice Welch

Ted Haaser, who had just left the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the time, was asked to help set up this ‘new OIG’ at USDA. “So one of my first acts, back in 1962, was to design official credentials for the first auditors and investigators that OIG would soon be transferring or hiring,” he recounted. “I designed the credentials to be green, with the USDA seal in gold, on the outside. An authorization statement and an official photo would be on the inside.”

“I made one set for the Secretary, one for the Under Secretary, and one for the new head of OIG,” he continued. “So then I decided I’d make the fourth set for me--and I did, and its number was 004.”

Haaser ultimately served as the assistant inspector general in OIG’s [then] Analysis and Evaluation Division until 1967 when he transferred to the U.S. Department of Transportation. He retired from the federal government in 1974 and presently resides in Fredericksburg, Va.

He has the distinction of being the first permanent OIG employee at USDA--and thereby also the first permanent employee in a non-military office of inspector general in the entire federal government. Brian Haaser, his son, is currently the special agent-in-charge of OIG’s Mid-Atlantic Region, based in Beltsville, Md.

Sixteen years after USDA’s OIG first started to function, the Inspector General Act of 1978 was passed. OIG senior program analyst Marie Harte Sanchez noted that it strengthened OIG’s audit and investigative authority, while permanently establishing an OIG at USDA and at a number of other federal departments.

Subsequent legislation would also provide USDA’s OIG with law enforcement authority. “In other words,” explained Jon Novak, acting assistant inspector general for investigations, “our special agents are armed, can make arrests, and can conduct searches and seizures.”

As part of a ceremony held on November 19 at USDA headquarters in Washington, DC, to commemorate the 25^th anniversary of the Inspector General Act of 1978, OIG unveiled four banners designed to highlight its history and accomplishments.

According to OIG program analyst Eileen Sanchez, the first banner detailed the history of OIG and spotlighted some of its milestones. The remaining three banners depicted examples of actions by OIG employees to reinforce the concepts of program integrity, health and safety, and protection of assets.

“Those are just a sample of some of the things we do,” Fong underscored, “as we serve as a bulwark against waste, fraud, and abuse in the delivery of USDA’s programs and services to its customers and the American taxpayers.” Comparable celebrations are to take place in OIG’s seven regional offices throughout the country. •

--Ron Hall