Strategic Plan

FY 2020-2021 through FY 2024-2025

Introduction

The Louisiana Office of State Inspector General (OIG) was first created in 1988 by Executive Order of then Governor Charles “Buddy” Roemer. The office was given a general mission to detect and prevent fraud waste and abuse, but had very little independence and no statutory authority to carry out that mission. The office operated under these fundamental constraints until 2008, when the Louisiana Legislature enacted La. R.S. 49:220.21-220.25. This enabling legislation made OIG permanent, established it as a law enforcement agency, and gave it a statutory mission to investigate fraud and public corruption. This enabling legislation also established independence measures and safeguards to prevent political abuse.

Prior to 2008, OIG’s main focus was internal audit, and its staff had mostly audit and accounting background. Since that time, OIG has transitioned into a law enforcement agency with a primary mission to investigate white collar criminal fraud and public corruption cases. Rather than mainly generating public reports, the OIG is now focused on securing criminal public corruption indictments and convictions. OIG has 11 POST Certified Criminal Investigators on staff. All are seasoned law enforcement veterans, and both the Inspector General and OIG General Counsel are experienced lawyers with criminal prosecution background. OIG also has 2 forensic auditors whose main responsibility is to support criminal public corruption investigations involving financial fraud. OIG maintains excellent working relationships with state and federal law enforcement partners, serves on Public Corruption task forces, and works closely with United States Attorneys in all three Louisiana federal districts as well as Louisiana District Attorneys in state district court.

OIG has statewide jurisdiction. For the past several years, OIG has engaged in statewide regionalization efforts through formal partnerships with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a parish District Attorney. These partnerships provide office space to our investigators in different areas of the state at no charge. In spite of recurring budget issues that have threatened OIG manpower, we are using the resources we have to continue working significant criminal investigations in every area of the state with improved response time, and significant savings of field travel expenses.

In drafting its enabling statutes, the OIG consulted with members of the national Association of Inspectors General and reviewed examples of enabling statutes and model legislation from other jurisdictions. This same information, and the OIG's new enabling statutes were assessed and utilized in the development of this Strategic Plan. In addition, the OIG's existing strategic plan was assessed and utilized in the development of this Strategic Plan.

View the complete Strategic Plan for FY 2023-2024 through FY 2027-2028.