"
The Army Inspector General has declined to voluntarily review the Army's aviation safety practices."
Originally Posted by
Hot 'n' High
Here, assuming the original quote is accurate (and nothing suggests it's not!), I suspect my bold highlighting above is key. Given the IG decided not to conduct a review of safety practices himself it looks like someone has just told the IG in no uncertain terms "So you don't want to voluntarily review things? Fine - so now we're ordering you to! Run along now like a good little chap and, by the way, when you report back, we'll be paying very close attention to your conclusions - so don't even think of a white-wash!".
I suspect that this the unwritten message to the IG given they are even highlighting why they are having to order him to do it!
Not knowing why the Army IG declined, my guess is "we're understaffed and overworked, this isn't our job", and putting that job on a bill means extra funding can be assigned to it. If the IG did it voluntarily, that'd come out of the existing budget. Or it provides justification for dropping some of the other tasks and doing this instead.
Maybe the IG thinks the DoD should provide that report.
We don't really know because the refusal isn't public, so we only know one side of the issue.
And I for one am reluctant to trust a politician over a (inspector) general in this.