Areas of Instruction — Core Competencies
The Association has identified six broad areas of core competency for inspectors general and their senior staff. The Institute program’s five-day curriculum covers the following six core competency areas:
- Context of the inspector general function
- Ethics
- Legal issues
- Public management issues
- Investigating fraud, waste, and abuse
- Audits, inspections, and reviews
Course Learning Objectives and Program Content
Overview of the Inspector General Function
- The history of the inspector general concept
- Typology of inspectors general: federal, state, and local
- The key factors, such as independence, responsibility, and authority
Ethics and the Inspector General
- The source of ethical standards
- The nature and role of ethics laws
- The practical application of ethical issues to the responsibility of inspectors general
Legal Issues
- How the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution impact the conduct of investigations and reviews by offices of inspectors general
- The impact of employment law on the conduct of investigations and reviews
Public Management Issues
- Current issues in public management and how they impact offices of inspectors general
Audit, Inspections, and Review
- The various approaches to audits, inspections, and reviews
- The skills required to manage the audit function and challenges to managing audits
- The standards applicable to audits, inspections, and reviews
- The importance of internal and management controls to audits, inspections, and reviews and sources of standards for controls
- The audit process and quality control
- The similarities and differences between audits and investigations
Investigating Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
- How to establish an effective investigative unit
- The source and limits of investigative authority and power
- The investigative process and management issues raised by investigations
- Approaches to investigations
- Standards for the conduct of investigations
- The similarities and differences between investigations and audits