Congressional investigative arm seeks to oversee US intelligence activities Jason Rhyne

Published: Monday October 8, 2007



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Print This Email This The head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) wants his agency to be directly involved in helping Congress oversee actions conducted by intelligence community -- but the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, thinks the plan could jeopardize the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches. In a March letter newly published by Secrecy News, US Comptroller General David Walker, who heads the GAO, expressed his support for legislation introduced earlier this year seeking to "reaffirm the authority of the Comptroller General to audit and evaluate the programs, activities, and financial transactions of the intelligence community." Proposed by Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), the new bill Walker endorsed is called the Intelligence Community Audit Act of 2008, a measure which underscores the GAO's jurisdiction over intelligence gathering agencies such as the CIA. "It is inconceivable that the GAO -- the audit arm of the U.S. Congress -- has been unable to conduct evaluations of the CIA for over 40 years," Sen. Akaka said upon introducing the bill in January. "If the GAO had been able to conduct basic auditing functions of the CIA," the senator continued, "perhaps some of the problems that were so clearly exposed following the terrorist attacks in September 2001 would have been resolved." "I believe that there are many areas in which GAO can support the intelligence committees in their oversight roles," Comptroller General Walker said in a letter commenting on the bill to the Senate Intelligence Committee. "We have significant knowledge and experience that can be of benefit to the Intelligence Community in connection with a broad range of transformation issues." Walker also echoed Sen. Akaka's concerns that GAO authority over the CIA and other agencies needed clear reaffirmation. "While GAO has authority to perform audits and evaluations of the Intelligence Community," Walker wrote, the Justice Department "has, for many years, taken a contrary view." "The reaffirmation provisions in the bill should help to ensure that GAO's audit access authorities are not misconstrued in the future," he added. "But the idea of greater GAO involvement in intelligence oversight was sharply discouraged by Director of National Intelligence J. Michael McConnell, who argued that the GAO could damage delicate relations between the intelligence agencies and the oversight committees," says Steven Aftergood at Secrecy News. Writing to the Senate Intelligence Committee a week after Walker's letter, McConnell said that "self-initiated action by the GAO or action on behalf of non-oversight Committees could undermine the ability of Intelligence Committee leadership to direct or stay abreast of oversight activities." He also said the GAO "could risk upsetting the historic balance struck between the two branches of government in national security matters." Comptroller General Walker wrote a follow-up letter shortly thereafter, disputing many of McConnell's concerns and otherwise suggesting tweaks to the legislation. "I continue to believe," he said, "there are many areas in which GAO can support the intelligence committees in their oversight role and, by extension, the Congress and Intelligence Community.



