Former Social Security watchdog Gail Ennis abused authority, report finds

The report is the result of an inquiry by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) that began after a Washington Post report in 2022 showed how the anti-fraud program levied escalating penalties that reached hundreds of thousands of dollars. The practice predated Ennis, a Trump administration appointee who took office in January 2019, but continued under her tenure.

“Ennis abused her authority and engaged in conduct that undermined the integrity reasonably expected of an Inspector General,” said the 54-page report of the inquiry led by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. The report, which was obtained by The Post, has not been made public.

Ennis’s office initially cooperated with the investigation starting in May 2022 into the administration of the anti-fraud program, the report said. But early this year, she began to obstruct it, issuing a directive to her staff to stop responding to investigators’ requests for documents and interviews, investigators found. By failing to recuse herself from a probe that concerned “her own alleged misconduct,” Ennis violated federal ethics requirements, according to the report.

The panel of federal watchdogs recommended that Ennis face disciplinary action “up to and including removal.” But she announced her resignation in late May. Saturday was her last day as inspector general, a position charged with oversight of the agency that distributes retirement benefits to 69 million Americans and monthly disability checks to about 15 million others.

The report caps five tumultuous years during which Ennis’s office was rocked by plummeting morale, falling productivity and allegations of retaliation against whistleblowers.

Ennis could not be reached for comment. A spokesperson for the Office of the Inspector General declined to comment. The report includes a letter Ennis wrote to a CIGIE committee in May that accused her fellow watchdogs of serious flaws in the investigation, including political bias “under the influence of IG Horowitz and his handpicked CIGIE leadership, who have abused (their) investigatory authority to consolidate power and influence within the community.” A spokeswoman for Horowitz declined to comment.

Ennis told investigators that her office had stopped cooperating this year while she waited for opinions she requested from the Government Accountability Office and the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel about some of Horowitz’s conclusions. But Ennis did not resume cooperating even after hearing back from those offices, which offered “no substantive decisions” about her complaints, the report said.

In her letter, Ennis specifically disputed Horowitz’s allegation that she refused to be interviewed, saying that his office declined to accept a later date that she proposed. “Had the DOJ OIG proceeded in a reasonable manner, I would have responded to each of the issues under investigation in detail and answered their questions. Yet, DOJ OIG refused to do so,” she wrote.

The report noted that the CIGIE panel that oversaw the investigation “carefully considered (Ennis’s) response and specifically found her arguments to be wholly without merit.”

In a letter sent on Saturday to the House and Senate committees that oversee Social Security, Ennis said she built a “more agile organization,” sought to tamp down scammers trying to steal money and personal information from retirees, and increased resources to fight disability fraud.

The CIGIE report said that a full investigation into the role of other top leaders in the inspector general’s office in administering the anti-fraud program will be the subject of a forthcoming report. The program, which was temporarily suspended following The Post’s story, is still being investigated by the Social Security Administration, the office of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and the Office of Special Counsel.

CIGIE’s report found that Ennis’ active resistance Its investigation included pressuring the group’s chairman with letters and phone calls to halt the probe. Her actions starting this spring “posed an ongoing challenge to the full development of facts,” it concluded.

After investigators for Horowitz concluded in March that the anti-fraud program had denied due process to claimants accused of fraud, Ennis inaccurately contended that the office of the health and human services inspector general followed similar practices, the report found. When Ennis was told her assertion was not accurate, she refused to correct it.

Ennis “made incomplete, misleading, and inaccurate representations about another (inspector general) to various government entities; failed to retract, withdraw, or otherwise modify those representations when informed they were untrue; and then wrongfully obstructed the investigation of her and other executives in her office,” the report found.

Ennis’s office faced increasing performance problems in recent years. The number of completed audits decreased. Dozens of senior auditors, investigators and other staff quit or retired, many in frustration with what they described to The Post and congressional investigators as their mercurial leadership and lack of focus on the office’s mission. Ennis’s office at the time called the departures a normal increase in attrition under new leadership, and said she was making improving employee morale a priority.

Multiple law enforcement agents quit or retired after Ennis told employees her staff was monitoring employee computers during the coronavirus pandemic to ensure that the mostly remote workforce was productive. Ennis took disciplinary action against several law enforcement agents she cited for poor performance — a charge denied by the agents and their union, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. The group voted “no confidence” in Ennis’ leadership in 2021.

Michelle Anderson, the assistant inspector for audits and one of Ennis’s top-ranking deputies, is serving as acting inspector general until the White House nominates a permanent replacement, a selection that is unlikely before the November election.