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Commerce Dept Denies IG Access To Docs, Hides Behind Justice Dept

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Department of Commerce officials are denying auditors from the agency’s Office of Inspector General (IG) access to International Trade Administration’s Enforcement and Compliance division records, justifying their defiance with a controversial Department of Justice (DOJ) opinion.

The July, 2015, DOJ Office of Legal Counsel opinion claimed the FBI could keep certain records from Justice Department IG Michael Horowitz, Horowitz and 46 other IGs warned Congress last year the opinion would be used by other federal departments and agencies to evade audits and investigations.

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman [crscore]Jason Chaffetz[/crscore] and the panel’s highest ranking Democrat Rep. [crscore]Elijah Cummings[/crscore] sent Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker a letter Tuesday reminding her of Horowitz’s prediction.

Chaffetz and Cummings told Pritzker the department’s stance is “inconsistent with the Inspector General Act,” a 1978 law authorizing IGs “to have access to all records, reports, audits, reviews, documents, papers, recommendations, or other material” they need in order to expose waste, fraud and abuse in federal departments and agencies.

“The inspectors general provide helpful and necessary oversight, and they cannot perform their statutory functions if agencies to not allow them access to records,” Chaffetz and Cummings wrote.

Commerce’s move is the latest in a battle between Obama administration agencies and the IGs tasked with holding them accountable. The FBI was the first reported agency to defy an IG in 2010, and others, including the Environmental Protection Agency and Peace Corps, have since followed suit.

The congressmen demanded all documents and communications the Commerce Department is using to justify its position by May 10.

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