Acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General John V. Kelly will retire from his position effective June 10, the Office of Inspector General confirmed Monday.

Deputy Inspector General Jennifer Costello will assume the role of acting inspector general, according to a statement from the DHS's Office of Inspector General (OIG) shared with The Hill by a spokesperson.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I informed OIG staff this morning that I intend to retire, effective today. I accelerated my retirement because I feel it’s in the best interest of the organization and its employees,” Kelly said in the statement.

“As I told the staff, I have truly enjoyed my 11-year tenure with the DHS OIG, an organization with a very important mission and extraordinary staff and managers that successfully execute that mission on a daily basis.”

Kelly’s retirement comes a week after a Washington Post report that he had overridden auditors who found issues with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) response to disasters.

Instead, the Post, citing interviews and a new internal review, reported that Kelly directed FEMA auditors to write “feel-good reports” about disaster response.

Kelly denied he had instructed his staff to write reports that attempted to sanitize the responses, the Post added in its report last week.