4: The Relationship Between the Overseer and the Overseen

This chapter describes the challenging relationship between an entity that provides independent oversight, such as an office of inspector general (OIG), and the entity experiencing that oversight, i.e., the agency or agencies an OIG is tasked with overseeing. There is a natural tension between the parties, with the overseer adopting a suspicious attitude in its efforts to ferret out fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption, and the overseen feeling worried about being publicly exposed as fraudulent, wasteful, abusive, or corrupt. Tension is heightened by the fact that OIGs should carefully maintain independence from the agencies they oversee, which makes the agencies feel more threatened because they cannot control the OIGs’ activities. This chapter provides some examples of how interpersonal tension can manifest itself and provide barriers to oversight. Only with a mutual understanding that both parties are working in the public interest can the tension be reduced and the relationship be more cooperative and less antagonistic.