 who basically started the President's Council. That's kind of scary just to be standing here and the President walks in behind you, who basically made a campaign promise before he became President to start an all-out fight against waste, fraud, and abuse. And after election early in 1981, Mr. President, you formed the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, which is before you today and proceeded to make good on that campaign promise. In your executive order in 1981, you put the Chairman of the President's Council and the Executive Office of the President, and I have been very proud to be in that role since 1982. Since then, IG funding has doubled to $500 million a year, and that hasn't been easy to get. It really has. IGs have been expanded to Department of Defense, Aid, USIA, Rail Retirement Board. We're negotiating the final IG bill with Congress right now, and the results have been dramatic. The recoveries of the funds put to better use have been $104 billion since 1981. Mr. President, that's not just the only story, because if you look right here, you will see what happened when you first came out and been going up steadily every year. That's one of the stories right there. I'll give you that. In 1982, the funds put to better use were $11.5 billion. We didn't even count them when you first came in because there was no system for basically measuring exactly what funds were put to better use as a result of the IG activities. In 1987, you'll see it's $20 billion per year, and we're running at that rate. Now, Mr. President, it's a 40-to-1 return every single year on your investment in the IGs. The $120 billion goal that you gave us to reach by the end of your administration, we're going to beat it. We'll beat it by $4 or $5 billion. On convictions, there have been 23,000 since 1981, but that's been doubling in the amount. In 1987, we did over 4,300. Now, it's not the situation that's gotten worse. We've gotten better at detecting fraud and abuse and dealing with these problems. Many of the examples are given to you in each semi-annual report, and they've been well-publicized. Like in defense, the IG picked up an $8,000 bribe at Navy contractor. The official was fired. The contractor's on trial. In GSA, the IG picked up a medical hardware company that was faked 60 test results on medical equipment. Companies debarred the presence in jail. USDA IG, three brothers, stole $2.5 million from the Women's Infants Children Program. Those three brothers spending 23 years combined in jail. In a future report, we'll cover the largest procurement fraud investigation ever at the Department of Defense, involving 200 DOD Naval Audit and IG personnel and 150 FBI personnel working together. The results speak for themselves, Mr. President, but the key result is that the federal government is in a much, much better shape to manage and defend against waste and fraud than eight years ago. If somebody tried to rip us off today, they'd know, number one, that they'd probably get caught. If they did it anyway, we'd probably catch them. You've many achievements, Mr. President, as part of your legacy. This is certainly one. Every single Inspector General that is in this room is part of your President's Council. I'm proud as chairman to present you with that 10-year report on the Inspector General that covers the activities and accomplishments of your Council. But, Mr. President, we couldn't have done it without you. This will be an important and very successful part of your legacy. Thank you for your leadership and your continued support. Now you see why I came in a little early there. I wanted to hear all that. Well, thank you, Joe, and I'd like to thank you and your Vice Chairman, Dick Couserot, for your outstanding work on the Council on Integrity and Efficiency. And I'm delighted to welcome the members of the Council on Integrity and Efficiency, or as I like to think of you, the waste and fraud busters. Sadly, as we all know, the abuses that you combat aren't just a problem for our government. I remember a story about two men who were partners in a business. One of them was in the hospital. Doctors didn't give him very much longer to live. His partner came to visit him in the hospital, and a sick fellow sat up in bed, said, I have to tell you something before I go to meet my maker. I was the one who took the petty cash from the safe. And I was the one who embezzled the pension fund money. And I was the one who burned our factory down and collected on the insurance. And the partner said, yes, I know all that. The first fellow said, you do? He says, sure, who do you think poisoned you? Well, all kidding aside, the sterling work that you and private organizations like Peter Grace's Citizens Against Government Waste have done just proves that we can use the laws we have and the people we have to make a real difference in the way the federal government does its business. You know, one of the best ways to reduce our deficits, and you know those deficits are shrinking as fast as Walter Hudson. That's the fellow in New York who used to weigh 1,200 pounds. He now weighs 500. He used to battle the scourge of government waste and fraud. You've all done that brilliantly. And it's my honor to recognize the winner of the Paul Boucher Award, Larry Mori, of the Department of Health and Human Services. Under his outstanding leadership, the Office of Investigations at the Department of Health and Human Services has seen its conviction rate leap over 400% to its current level of 1,125 convictions in 1988. Doc, you keep this guy. He's good. The runner-up for this year's award is Chris Greer, who is Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Audit at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. And because of his efforts over the past three years, the government recovered $25 million of misspent money. Sam, what I just told Doc goes for you, too. In 1981, I charged this council with going after illegal acts and mismanagement that we could restore public management in our government. And I told you to be as mean as junkyard dogs in pursuing fraud in West. And throughout this administration, Larry, Chris, and all of you have done a great job. You've done just that. And I have to ask you one question. Isn't it a great pleasure to know that you've succeeded with honor? That's the kind of work that our inspectors, and their excellent staffs do. The diligence-paid work that ferrets out waste and fraud and nails the crooks. For example, I was told about one case. You've heard about some here from Joe already investigated by Larry, where a cardiologist ran a genuinely horrifying Medicare scam. He told many of his patients that they had heart trouble and installed pacemakers, even though it wasn't true. He even bragged openly about how he performed 100 of these surgical implants every year, no matter whether his parents or his patients needed them or not. Well, the inspector general brought him to justice. The cardiologist had to pay back the $100,000 he had built from the government. And when that heart doctor heard the judge pronounce a sentence of 10 years, you can bet his heart skipped a beat or two. In another case, an ambulance company owner paid kickbacks to doctors. And when Larry's people discovered this crime, the owner of the country company was so intent on avoiding prosecution that arrangements were made to have the car of a witness blown up. But the IG prevailed and the owner was convicted of both the kickbacks and the bombing. Larry and Chris joined a prestigious group of past award winners, including John Melchner. John was recognized in 1985 for his outstanding work in the inspector's general office of the Defense Department. The recent defense procurement revelations highlight the need for us to stay vigilant. And that's what you're for, the great core of inspector's general. This is some of the most important work done in government because it upholds the law of the land and simultaneously restores the faith of the people in the ability of the executive branch to police itself. You've earned the respect and gratitude of your countrymen and you've set an example for future administrations to follow. You know, I think when this campaign season, when I keep hearing these things about sleaze and so forth, no one mentions the fact that we're the ones who found it out and you are the ones who did that. It isn't a case of that everybody was a crook in our administration. It was when we found things that were being wrong of the kind we've described here, we didn't wait for somebody else to do it. We found it out. And you've earned the respect and gratitude of your countrymen. You've set an example for future administrations to follow. Now, I think we have some pictures to take. I thank you all and God bless you all for what you're doing, but first to Larry Morey, the winner. When you... Happy to see you, sir.