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A Mahoning County native is the president’s nominee for inspector general of the General Services Administration
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Carol Fortine Ochoa, a Mahoning County native who is the presidential nominee for inspector general of the General Services Administration, received praise from Democrats and Republicans during a U.S. Senate committee hearing.
“I find her to be exceptionally qualified for this job,” said U.S. Sen. James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma, at the beginning of the Ochoa’s 70-minute hearing Wednesday in front of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
“I wish you well; this is a very important position and we need to have you on the job,” said U.S. Sen. Gary C. Peters, a Democrat from Michigan. “I look forward to working with you.”
The committee needs to recommend Ochoa, a 1976 Cardinal Mooney High School graduate who grew up in Boardman and Poland, to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.
The committee is allowing members to submit written statements to the record until 5 p.m. today. No members criticized Ochoa during the hearing.
While members gave the impression the decision is expected shortly, no one gave a specific date for a committee vote.
“The job will be tougher than the nomination,” said Lankford, who ran Ochoa’s hearing.
President Barack Obama nominated Ochoa for GSA inspector in March.
Ochoa has spent the past 10 years as assistant inspector general in the IG’s oversight and review division of the U.S. Department of Justice. She also spent three years as director of the oversight and review commission at the DOJ.
Between 1989 and 2002, Ochoa was an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in the fraud and public-corruption section, and was an associate independent council at the Office of Independent Counsel from 1987 to 1989. She started her legal career in 1983 as a law clerk for the chief judge of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Mississippi, followed by four years as an associate attorney at a private law firm.
Ochoa is seeking to succeed Robert C. Erickson Jr., the acting inspector general for GSA.
The GSA oversees the federal government’s real-estate and supply purchases.
The inspector general of the GSA is responsible for promoting economy, efficiency and effectiveness as well as detecting and preventing fraud, waste and mismanagement in the administration’s programs and operations, according to the agency.
Also, the IG performs independent financial, program, information technology, contract and compliance audits; criminal and civil investigations, reviews proposed legislation and regulations; and other services to senior GSA, congressional and law-enforcement officials.