City of Detroit Office of Inspector General Kicks Off Full Operations
2/18/2013 - Residents and all who do business with the City of Detroit now have an investigative agency they can rely on to ensure honesty and integrity in City government. The City of Detroit’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has kicked off full operations in Cadillac Tower, located at 65 Cadillac Square, Suite 3210. Individuals now can make complaints in person, via a hotline or through a secure online process.
The mission of the OIG is to root out waste, abuse, fraud, and corruption in City government. It investigates the actions of City employees, elected and appointed City officials, all other public servants as defined by the City Charter, contractors and vendors who do business with the City.
The City of Detroit’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) was established as an independent agency by the 2012 City Charter. Detroit’s first Inspector General, James W. Heath, was appointed by Council on July 27, 2012, and sworn in on August 27, 2012. Since that time, Heath has worked to acquire office space, negotiate a budget amendment to provide adequate funds for operations, hire a staff including forensic auditors, investigators, and other administrative support, and acquire office equipment and software critical for the efficient and secure operation of the lean OIG staff. After exhaustive research and benchmarking, the Office of Inspector General has also implemented secure email and data storage solutions, which assures the discretion and confidentiality of OIG information, as well as those reporting information to the office.
While the Office of Inspector General has been accepting cases, it did not aggressively advertise its operations to the public or employees.
Heath said, “You only get one chance to make a good impression, we wanted to make sure that when complaints started coming in in earnest, we were able to handle them efficiently and effectively.”
While the Inspector General operates independently of both branches of City government, Mayor Dave Bing and City Council President Charles Pugh are in full support of the work of the OIG.
“As Mayor, I have required high standards of integrity and ethical conduct for all City employees,” said Mayor Bing. “I support the work of the Office of Inspector General to maintain those high standards.”
Pugh added: “Having an internal watchdog for all branches of government is what we've needed for a long time. The ability for people to report abuse, misuse or misconduct anonymously is going to have a major impact on curtailing the pockets of corruption we've wanted to get rid of for quite some time."
OIG may be contacted by a voicemail hotline at 313.964.TIPS(8477), and via the Web at www.detoig.org, which contains a link to its secure online reporting form. Employees and citizens can also make their complaints in person at the OIG office.
A citywide email will been sent to all City employees informing them of the availability and functions of the Office of Inspector General. Additionally, a letter is being sent to all City contractors.
The Inspector General will also schedule and attend community meetings to introduce the Office of the Inspector General to the community.