The appointment of acting IGs at State & Transportation Depts who are keeping their day jobs as agency managers violates the spirit of the IG Act, which provides that an IG "shall not report to, or be subject to supervision by, any other officer of such establishment." /1

That prohibition applies only to Senate-confirmed, not acting IGs, and arguably only in their IG capacities. But there can be no doubting that appointing an agency manager to be acting IG while continuing to report to another agency manager in their day job violates the spirit./2

It also violates the PURPOSE of having an IG. The IG Act states plainly that its purpose is "to create independent and objective units" to conduct investigations. An acting IG responsible for investigating the office he leads in his day job is neither independent nor objective./3

In this context, there is no way any Republican Senator who cared about inspectors general would tolerate this arrangement--they would use their considerable leverage to put a stop to it. Or, stated differently, no Republican Senator cares about inspectors general. /4