Establishes an office of inspector general as an independent administrative agency, charged with preventing and detecting fraud, waste and abuse, and mismanagement in the expenditure of public funds.
H5998 would create a new Office of Inspector General within Rhode Island law as an independent administrative agency assigned to the governor for administrative purposes only, but not subject to gubernatorial control. The office’s core mission would be to investigate fraud, waste, abuse, corruption, and mismanagement in executive-branch agencies, and to receive complaints from any source, conduct audits and management reviews, and recommend remedial action to prevent recurrence. The bill also defines key terms such as fraud, waste, abuse, corruption, and the categories of state personnel and agencies subject to review.
The inspector general would have broad investigative powers, including access to agency records, the ability to question officials and employees, authority to issue subpoenas, and the power to seek court enforcement through the attorney general if subpoenas are ignored. The office could also employ certified police officers with arrest, warrant, and firearm authority for criminal investigations, and it would be required to promulgate rules governing its proceedings. The bill further provides confidentiality protections for office records, while allowing public release of reports in certain circumstances, and it makes violations of confidentiality punishable by fine or imprisonment.
The bill would add a new chapter to Title 42 of the Rhode Island General Laws and create a new oversight structure over the executive branch. It would expand state law by granting the inspector general jurisdiction over executive-branch officials, officers, employees, departments, boards, commissions, and agencies, while expressly preserving the authority of the attorney general and other law enforcement agencies. It would also impose cooperation duties on agencies, create whistleblower-style protections against retaliation for reporting suspected wrongdoing, and establish a conflict-of-laws rule making the new chapter controlling over inconsistent laws.
The available materials show a generally supportive or reform-oriented posture toward the bill, with the stated purpose focused on accountability, integrity, and efficiency in state government. Because there are no committee transcripts or recorded votes in the provided context, there is no documented floor or committee debate to indicate formal opposition or amendments. The bill text itself suggests an emphasis on strengthening oversight and public trust in state operations.
The main points of potential contention are the breadth of the inspector general’s authority and the independence of the new office. The bill gives the office wide access to records, authority to enter agencies without prior announcement, subpoena power, and the ability to employ armed certified police officers, which could raise concerns about separation of powers, agency autonomy, and due process. Another likely issue is confidentiality: the bill makes office records confidential by default while also allowing public release of reports in some cases, creating a balance between transparency and investigative secrecy that could be debated by supporters and critics alike.