Today's FBI: Ensuring Accountability and Compliance

"The greatness of an institution can be measured by the strength of its internal investigations." Robert S. Mueller, III

Annual Inspections

All FBI offices and programs are subject to regular inspections by the FBI’s Inspection Division to ensure they are performing effectively, economically, and in effective compliance with objectives, governing laws, rules, regulations, and policies. These reviews also ensure that FBI personnel conduct the organization’s activities in a proper and professional manner. The Division conducts organizational streamlining studies, program evaluations, and process-reengineering and improvement projects. The Inspection Division also ensures compliance with instructions and recommendations issued as a result of the inspection of field offices, Legats, and Headquarters to facilitate the resolution of instructions or recommendations and is responsible for the coordination and processing of Intelligence Oversight Board matters.

Office of Professional Responsibility

The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is the component in the FBI (part of the Office of the Director) charged with ensuring that Bureau employees conduct themselves with the highest level of integrity and professionalism by serving as the primary arbiter for adjudication matters. In addition, OPR is responsible for setting policy and establishing procedures regarding the disciplinary process and for monitoring its effectiveness to ensure that the ability of the FBI to perform its law enforcement and national security functions is not impaired.

OPR works closely with the Inspection Division to address any allegations of employee misconduct or criminality—both internal disciplinary actions as well as public conduct.

When an allegation of misconduct is made, the Inspection Division conducts an investigation to determine whether the allegations have been substantiated, making written findings and recommendations regarding what, if any, disciplinary action is appropriate. If adjudication is deemed necessary, OPR will pick up the case and administer discipline based on investigations conducted by the Inspection Division.

Office of Integrity and Compliance

Compliance is “doing the right things, the right way.” With national security at the forefront of our mission, FBI employees are now, more then ever, under tremendous pressures to maximize the intelligence derived from investigations. Such pressures, however, can never be an excuse to take short-cuts that can compromise our institutional integrity. Our “business” demands strict adherence to both the letter and the spirit of all applicable laws, regulations, and policies. Each employee has the responsibility to uphold the FBI’s core values of integrity and accountability so that the Bureau maintains the public’s trust.

The Office of Integrity and Compliance (OIC) was created in 2007 to ensure that there are processes and procedures in place that promote FBI compliance with both the letter and the spirit of applicable laws, regulations, rules, and policies. An essential element of the FBI Integrity and Compliance Program is communication—both from the OIC to FBI employees and from FBI employees to the OIC. In order for the Integrity and Compliance Program to succeed, it is important that FBI employees raise concerns and ask questions about potential or actual violations of law, regulations, and policies so that these issues can be examined and resolved. There will be times when compliance issues overlap with other issues such as employee misconduct or performance issues. The OIC will work with the Inspection Division, the Ombudsman’s Office, Human Resources Division, and DOJ OIG to ensure that issues are referred to the appropriate entity for handling.

OIC also plays a vital role conducting ethics training of all FBI employees throughout their careers.

The Inspector General

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG), established by the Inspector General Act Amendments of 1988, is an independent entity within the Department of Justice that reports to both the Attorney General and the Congress on issues that affect the Department’s personnel or mission. The OIG is responsible for finding and discouraging waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct among DOJ employees and its programs, and also promoting integrity, economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in its operations. The OIG also enforces criminal and civil laws, regulations, and ethical standards within DOJ by investigating individuals and organizations that allegedly are involved in financial, contractual, or criminal misconduct in DOJ programs and operations. This year, the OIG will devote significant resources to reviewing DOJ programs and operations that affect its ability to respond to the threat of terrorism.

The current Inspector General is Glenn A. Fine, who was confirmed on December 15, 2000. Inspector General Fine is a Harvard-trained attorney, experienced prosecutor, and long-time civil servant. For more information on Glenn Fine or OIG go to http://www.usdoj.gov/oig.

The Office of the General Counsel

The FBI’s Office of the General Counsel (OGC) provides comprehensive legal advice to the Director, other FBI officials and divisions, and field offices on a wide array of investigative and administrative operations. This includes legal training, litigation counsel and support, and handling all general and national security law matters.

In October 2006, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Unit (PCLU) was established within the General Law and Legal Training Branch of OGC. The PCLU provides legal advice on privacy and civil liberties matters across all FBI investigative and intelligence collection programs and exercises a central role in the FBI’s privacy/civil liberties compliance efforts.

The Security Division

The FBI’s Security Division works to ensure a safe and secure work environment for FBI employees and others with access to FBI facilities and to prevent the compromise of national security and FBI information. It works to prevent espionage and to protect personnel, facilities, and information from both external and internal threats.

The Security Division is responsible for ensuring the integrity and reliability of the Bureau’s workforce. It uses the product of personnel security investigations to determine whether someone can be trusted to properly protect sensitive or classified FBI information. It performs polygraph examinations to help determine trustworthiness and to support criminal investigations.

The Security Division manages programs to protect staff, contractors, and Bureau visitors. These programs include force protection, facility access control, incident reporting and management, and continuity of operations planning. The division also conducts security training to help prepare staff and contractor personnel to execute their general and specific security responsibilities.

The Security Division manages programs, techniques, and processes to protect and defend information and information systems by assuring their integrity, authentication, availability, non-repudiation, and confidentiality. For documents in an electronic format, this is accomplished through information systems certification and accreditation, access control and need-to-know, intrusion detection, as well as encryption and secure messaging. For hard-copy documents, the division sets policy that governs protection of sensitive and classified documents.

Acknowledgements

This site was prepared by the FBI Office of Public Affairs (OPA).

Robert S. Mueller, III, Director, FBI
John J. Miller, Assistant Director, OPA, FBI
Michael P. Kortan, Deputy Assistant Director, OPA, FBI
Nina A. Mrose, Section Chief, OPA, FBI
Michael F. Seelman, Unit Chief, Employee Communications Unit, OPA, FBI
Brian Hale, Writer / Editor, OPA, FBI
Scott Carmine, Web Design, OPA, FBI
Gail Bolton Paggi, Graphic Design, OPA, FBI
Tamara R. Harrison, Editor, OPA, FBI

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