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Joint base IG is here for you

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. John Muratore
  • Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Inspector General Office
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  Do you remember that old commercial? The one with the Maytag repairman? If you spend your free time checking Facebook on your iPad, then you may not remember it. But, if you grew up in front of the television in the 70's and 80's like I did, you probably recall the commercial.

Since you haven't seen it in a while, just Google it or check it out on YouTube. For those who aren't as tech savvy, here is a quick synopsis. The Maytag repairman, or Ol' Lonely as they call him, sits there in his repair shop, trying to figure out what to do with his days because he has no Maytag appliances to repair. Why doesn't he have any Maytags to repair? Because the appliances were so durable and dependable, his repair services weren't needed.

As I sit here in my office, I think, wouldn't it be nice to be the Maytag repairman? Well, I don't actually want to be the Maytag repairman. But, wouldn't it be great if the system worked so well, my services weren't needed and put me out of business? Who am I? I am the installation Inspector General at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

Hopefully you have seen the IG greeting cards posted throughout the joint base with our three friendly, inviting faces. I sure hope so since the unit compliance inspection is coming and I know our IG inspector is going to ask everyone he sees, "Do you know who your IG is?" For those who aren't familiar, the IG serves as an extension of the commander by acting as her eyes and ears to be alert to issues impacting the organization. To paraphrase our Air Force instruction 90-301, "IGs serve their commanders by executing the complaints resolution process and by training the organization about fraud, waste and abuse issues."

When someone files a complaint with the IG office, more likely than not, they feel some part of the system didn't do its job as it was designed. If the system always did its job, then I might just be out of business, just like the Maytag repairman. And wouldn't that be nice? Not to be out of business, but to be out of business because the system resolved the member's issues without the member needing to visit their IG. Sure, there are complaints that are frivolous and we dismiss those, but in most cases, the individuals who come through our door have a legitimate issue, or situation that they have not been able to resolve through the normal process.

They've tried to talk to the right people, they've tried to work with their chain of command, but somewhere along the line, their issue is still unresolved. When an issue is unresolved, it impacts the organization's discipline, readiness and warfighting capability. In other words, if the members of the unit are preoccupied with a complaint, they aren't focused on the mission. If personnel aren't focused on the mission...well I won't even go there.

How can you help? In my five months on the job so far, I would say the largest percentage of our complaints could have been resolved through better communication. I'm sure you've heard that before. If all the parties involved are communicating, it's less likely that an IG visit is going to be necessary.

I'm not just talking about the chain of command and first sergeants. I am also talking about complainants doing a better job communicating as well. If you think you are being treated unfairly with your assignment, deployment, performance report, promotion testing, you name it...do your "due diligence" as they say and talk to the right people as soon as possible.

Remember bad news never gets better with time. If you have experience and training on the issue in question, do your part by helping another Airmen, Soldier, Sailor, Marine or Coastguardsmen. That may require you to ask additional questions to determine what the real issue is. Investing more time up front makes it less likely that the IG will be contacting you in a couple months to resolve a complaint that has lingered unresolved for too long. Usually at that point, there is a greater cost to the member and possibly to the unit.

Complaints left unresolved can result in additional financial costs, records that need correcting and even dreaded short notice deployment taskings. Nobody wants any of those to happen.

If you have made every effort to work through your chain of command, talk to the right people and still have a complaint, by all means come see us. Like the ad says, "we're the IG and we're here to help." Remember that our duty as the IG is to serve as fair, impartial and object fact-finders and problem solvers. We can't guarantee that you will like the outcome, but we will get to the bottom of the issue and do our part to help everyone re-focus on the mission.

The Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst installation Inspector General is located in Building 2903, Room 8 on McGuire and in Building 150, Suite B113 on Lakehurst. We can be reached at 754-8711 or by emailing 87-02@mcguire.af.mil. We'll see you soon on Facebook.