Trump nominated Dennis Kirk, one of the authors of a chapter of the conservative policy playbook and a former official in the White House Office of Personnel Management during the first Trump administration, to be the department’s inspector general.
Mark Greenblatt, a former inspector general (IG) of the department, recently told The Hill that having someone with clear political leanings in the role of independent watchdog was unprecedented and could hamper investigations and compromise whistleblowers.
"The chilling effect on whistleblowers is real," Greenblatt said via text. "Who would jeopardize their careers by submitting a complaint about an administration official to an IG who is avowedly aligned with the administration?”
He raised similar concerns about inspector general office staff, saying, “What if an audit into an administration initiative finds problems — will the auditors hesitate to report such findings out of fear from their own IG? Will investigators be punished or sidelined if they conduct good-faith investigations into senior administration officials and uncover evidence of misconduct?”
This is not Kirk’s first placement within a watchdog’s office. The Washington Post reported that he was also placed inside a watchdog office for the intelligence community last year.
His appointment comes as the Interior Department faces particular scrutiny over Trump’s D.C. projects, specifically the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Read more at TheHill.com.
