Watchdog finds deficiencies but no Fed misconduct in Powell-era renovation project
The watchdog cited oversight failures and a $1 billion-plus overrun, and the Fed board accepted seven recommendations as the project continues toward 2027.
- On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a 120-page report finding no criminal or administrative misconduct in the headquarters renovation, though concluding the Board "had not effectively executed" its construction contract.
- Construction costs for the Eccles Federal Reserve Building ballooned to roughly $2.4 billion from a $921 million estimate in 2020, driven by systemic project management failures including lack of price caps and insufficient competitive bidding.
- President Donald Trump frequently criticized the project as "disgraceful," citing luxury upgrades; however, Inspector General Horowitz found that marble finishes and private elevators "did not materially contribute" to the budget overruns.
- Fed Chair Kevin Warsh announced the General Services Administration will assume project management to "verify accuracy and compliance," while the central bank will hire an independent auditor to recover costs for unperformed work.
- The report effectively closes a contentious chapter involving legal attacks on former Chair Jerome Powell, who remains on the Board of Governors, as criminal probes were dismissed in April after courts found the subpoenas were a "pretext.
76 Articles
76 Articles
IG report finds no misconduct around Fed building renovation
An inspector general report says the Federal Reserve did a poor job of keeping construction costs in check during a major renovation of its Washington buildings, but there's no evidence of misconduct.
Fed blasted by top watchdog over ‘mismanaged’ $2.5B ‘Palace of Versailles’ HQ work
A scathing watchdog report blasts the Federal Reserve for mismanaging its $2 billion headquarters renovation, while clearing former Chairman Jerome Powell of criminal wrongdoing.
The former president of the Fed was targeted by an investigation around the renovation site of the headquarters of the central bank in Washington. Donald Trump suspected fraud after the explosion of the cost of the works. ...
Watchdog finds no criminal misconduct over US Fed renovations despite Trump probe
"At no point during our evaluation did we find reasonable grounds to believe that a violation of federal criminal law had occurred," the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Federal Reserve said in its report. In April, the Department of Justice dropped a criminal probe into then-chairman Jerome Powell over the cost overruns after Trump had called for the central bank chief to step down. Trump had clashed with Powell over the path of int…
The Inspector General has not discovered any evidence of possible violations of the building conversion, but other shortcomings have been identified. Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks of a witch hunt.
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