A 2018 inspector general report on spending by the office of the chairman of the federal credit union regulatory agency, conducted in follow-up to an anonymous complaint, omitted any benchmarking with similar spending of other agencies (none specified) and with which NCUA spending compares favorably, according to a response to the report published online.
The original report by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Office of Inspector General (OIG), dated May 14, 2018, was just recently published by the NCUA OIG. The agency’s response was posted around the same time in a News section of the agency’s website for statements.
In that response, the agency says the OIG report “alleges excess spending on the part of the Chairman’s Office, which is a subjective standard. In matters of opinion expressed within the OIG report, reasonable minds may disagree, which is the case. The objective criteria to be applied included compliance with law, which the OIG has stated were not violated.”
The response also says the spending in question is well below similar types of spending in other agencies, though the final OIG report “did not benchmark the various types of listed expenses to other agencies and therefore, did not note the expenditures for meals and transportation services compare favorably to the way similar business is conducted at other agencies …”
Additionally, it says the agency’s Office of the Executive Director “determined that NCUA’s internal travel and representation expense policies were inconsistent, and needed further clarification, as outlined in the enclosed documents. Also, the claims for reimbursement were within the parameters of agency policy.” The supplementary documents are included in the PDF version of the response posted on the agency’s website.
Response to OIG Report of Investigation 18-01
RR: OIG report on investigation of NCUA chair, COS expenditures published (Jan. 11, 2019)