Summary

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the operations of the offices of inspectors general (OIG) at five federal financial regulatory agencies, focusing on: (1) their establishment and independence; (2) the types of work conducted; and (3) their audit and investigative resources.

GAO found that: (1) it was unclear whether the National Credit Union Administration's (NCUA) inspector general was reporting to the head of the agency, as required by law, and whether OIG performed prohibited programmatic functions; (2) the federal financial regulatory agencies' audit groups largely focused their efforts on financial audits, many of which were related to the agencies' roles as insurers; (3) the audit groups generally conducted few audits of regulatory and supervisory issues; (4) as of March 1990, OIG staffing was 13 at the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors, 113 at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and 4 at NCUA; (5) the Department of the Treasury OIG generally had 9 staff dedicated to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency; and (6) at the time it was abolished in October 1989, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board had 55 OIG staff.