WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stuart Bowen, the U.S. special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction whose office has uncovered abuse of both Iraqi and U.S. funds, is under investigation by a special White House office on integrity, a White House spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
"Complaints against Mr. Bowen are being looked at by the integrity committee of the PCIE (President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency), said spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore.
She gave no details about the investigation or the nature of the complaints against Bowen.
The White House council, created in 1992, is comprised of presidentially appointed inspectors general and headed by Clay Johnson, the deputy director for management of the Office of Management and Budget.
Several former employees of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, SIGIR, filed complaints about Bowen in 2006, focusing on charges that he failed to come to work for long periods at a time, and used SIGIR staff to work on a book about the broad lessons of Iraq reconstruction, said one former SIGIR employee, who asked not to be named.
Bowen's office declined comment.
"It is SIGIR's standing policy neither to confirm nor deny the existence of any investigation, whether by SIGIR investigators or any other (U.S. government) agency," said spokeswoman Denise Burgess.
Bowen was first appointed as inspector general of the Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority in January 2004, remaining on in that role after the creation of SIGIR.
His office produces quarterly reports to Congress about Iraq reconstruction efforts. His latest report said seven of eight rebuilding projects that costing about $150 million had previously been declared successes, were now in disrepair or had been abandoned.
Bowen, a lawyer who spent four years in the U.S. Air Force, previously served as deputy assistant to President George W. Bush, as well as associate counsel.
Before his White House tenure, Bowen was a legal adviser to the Bush-Cheney transition team; and from 1994 to 2000, he held a variety of positions on then-Governor Bush's staff in Texas.
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