can be just as bad as having an ineffective cigir. pogo strongly urges the obama administration and congress to make filling all of these vacancies a priority. but we also caution that filling the vacancies quickly should not come at the expense of identifying highly qualified candidates, a process which can take time. thank you very much for asking pogo for our views on these important issues. i'd be happy to answer any questions. >> thank you. before i recognize myself, i'd ask unanimous consent that two letters from congressman chaffetz, one to president obama dated february 9th, 2012 and one also to president obama dated may 17th, 2011, be placed in the record. both related to these vacancies. without objection, so ordered. mr. wiens, one quick question. in your opening statement you said that sometimes a vacancy can be good. i'm presuming that what that meant was sometimes creating a vacancy would be good but retaining a vacancy is never desirable. >> exactly. it's the initiation of that vacancy is what i meant. it creates the op

it's just as bad as having an ineffective cigir. pogo strongly urges the obama administration and congress to make filling all of these vacancies a priority. but we also caution that filling the vacancies quickly should not come at the expense of identifying highly qualified candidates, a process which can take time. thank you very much for asking pogo for our views on these important issues. i'd be happy to answer any questions. >> thank you. before i

. >> if we take a look at cigir and the active ig trend, they proposed only four suspensions or debarments. most recently acting ig office proposed only 40 suspensions or debarments. similarly, at the state department, before acting iggeisel was in charge, the ig's office recovered $715,000 in funds and opened 14 investigations. under the acting ig's leadership, recovered funds increased to $10.7 million. and the number of investigations opened has increased to 49. i guess what i'm really just simply pointing out is the fact that these individuals do, in fact, provide very effective services and that we are in good stead oftentimes when they are placed in those offices, although they have not been permanently placed. and i guess it does help, though, to try and speed up the permanent placement so that the individuals have the security themselves of knowing what they're going to be doing, what they're going to be expected to do. and my point is simply that we should try in as many instances as possible to make these permanent placements so that the individuals are not just acting at a level