>>>/patriotsfight/262
TRANSCRIPT:
Michael Horowitz is here with us he is the Inspector General of the Department of Justice he's responsible for the oversight of the FBI and the DOJ since 2015 he has also served as the chair of the Council of the inspectors general on integrity and efficiency an organization comprised of all 73 federal inspectors general this is a very important man and you know what he's one of the good guys please come forward Thank You Jane for that very kind introduction and thank you for having me today this is a tremendously important event and I appreciate Steve making time available so that I could be here today because I'd agreed to speak down the street at a judge's invitation and so I had to figure out how to get here today as well and so very much appreciated Steve making time in this slot for me to be able to be here because this is so important and something that I very much wanted to be here to speak to you about although I must say had I known I was going to follow senator Grassley and Ujjain I'm not sure I wouldn't have come back even later to speak and what great presentations and discussions we in the IG community value all that you do as whistleblowers to come forward this is the 40th anniversary of the passage of the IG Act in 1978 we just had an event here in the Capitol that Senator Grassley hosted as you may know he has been here since 1978 and has is one of actually four members of Congress who has voted on every single piece of IG Act legislation at the same time he has moved forward so many important pieces of legislation in The Whistleblower area and they really go hand in hand it is so important for us as IG s to have all of you be willing to come forward and report to us on waste abuse misconduct mismanagement what you see in organizations that you've worked with and worked for whether they are within the agency with contractors with grant recipients I often speak about this with the folks in my office we we oversee in the Justice Department over 100,000 employees we have one of the largest IG offices with 475 people 475 people overseeing 100,000 plus people that doesn't even touch grant recipients and contractors gives you a sense of responsibility that can be overwhelming at times for us to do that job most effectively we need the employees of the Justice Department be willing to come in and speak to us we need employees of Justice Department contract recipients grantees to be willing to come in to speak with us that's how oversight gets done effectively that's how waste fraud abuse mismanagement is routed out that's how government is made more effective and efficient and that's really what as Jane was saying you all have fought for over the years and as Senator Grassley mentioned also you're not in it for the money you're in it because you want to see justice done you want to see what's right done you want to see government work the right way you want to see government work defectively you don't want to see people cheating and stealing and lying their way with the taxpayers money and that's what it's all about and that's what I G's work for and that's why it's so important that we work on these issues and further these issues and it's one of the things that I've been proud to see in the IG community over the last several years as we've worked forward to advance issues of importance on whistleblowers and whistleblowing we were closely with Senator Grassley staffs we work closely with the house and the Senate whistleblower caucuses we work closely with organizations like the national whistleblower Center NGOs throughout the government have heard their voices and your voices speak to us on issues that are important that issues that we've got to work for that issues that make sure that the people like you all who perform such a vital and important public service coming forward speaking the truth speaking about what needs to change and making sure that you all never get retaliated for doing so it's often easier said than done as Jane was talking about and I know from my career as a prosecutor when I was in New York City and I've familiar with some of the cases that you've referenced the folks from New York here