The Office of Inspector General serves the American worker and taxpayer by conducting audits, investigations, and evaluations that result in improvements in the effectiveness, efficiency, and economy of departmental programs and operations. We detect and prevent fraud and abuse in DOL programs and labor racketeering in the American workplace. We provide advice to the Secretary and the Congress on how to attain the highest possible program performance.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) was established at the Department of Labor (DOL), as well as at eleven other Federal agencies, by the Inspector General Act of 1978 (IG Act). Since its establishment, six Inspectors General have served at the Department of Labor. The Congress created the offices in response to a series of government scandals that had occurred over the preceding decade. Congress believed that by establishing independent Inspectors General (IG) within each major Federal agency, taxpayers' funds could be more prudently used and accurately accounted for; that government would be better equipped to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse; and that the public's confidence in their government would be enhanced.

A major benefit of the IG Act was perhaps most succinctly stated in testimony provided to Congress by the Department of Justice and cited in the IG Act's legislative history: "The combining of audit and investigation functions under an Inspector General in the respective departments and agencies virtually ensures that the performance of the agencies will improve."

Over the intervening years, Congress has required the establishment of Offices of Inspector General in 63 Federal agencies.

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