Since the passage of the 1978 Inspector General (IG) Act, billions of dollars have been returned to the federal government or better spent based on IG recommendations. However, some scholars argue that IGs may contribute to more inefficiency rather than to effectiveness in government. This article addresses that issue by evaluating selected components of IG effectiveness in a specific case–the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Evidence suggests that while the DHS OIG focuses on large systemic issues, its investigations result in recommendations for contract management improvement, and prevent wrongdoing by helping to improve performance. As a result, the office does not fit the profile of the ineffective IG as proposed by some critics.