The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) elected Hannibal “Mike” Ware, inspector general (IG) for the Small Business Administration (SBA) and acting IG for the Social Security Administration (SSA), to serve as CIGIE chair.
Ware will begin his two-year term on Jan. 1, 2025, replacing Mark Lee Greenblatt, IG for the Department of the Interior, who has served as CIGIE chair since January 2023.
As CIGIE chair, Ware will, among other duties, convene and preside over CIGIE meetings; appoint the vice chair; exercise CIGIE’s functions and duties; oversee CIGIE’s administrative and business functions; establish CIGIE standing committees; and transmit CIGIE’s annual report to the president and Congress.
“I am honored to serve as CIGIE Chairperson,” Ware said in a Nov. 19 statement. “I started my career in the IG community, and after almost 35 years of Federal IG experience, I’m looking forward to celebrating our rich history, allowing the past to inform our present, and building upon our core tenets of independence and objectivity.”
He continued, “I deeply appreciate our past CIGIE Chairpersons, who continue to serve and lead within our community today. I stand on the shoulders of giants and will utilize that high ground in great fashion, combined with voices that may have been untapped.”
Ware was sworn in as SBA’s IG in May 2018. In this role, he is responsible for independent oversight of SBA’s programs and operations, which include SBA’s role in the nation’s pandemic response, accounting for over a trillion dollars of lending authority, loan portfolios valued at hundreds of billions of dollars, small business contracting programs that result in over $160 billion in Federal contracting dollars annually, and a robust portfolio of counseling programs that assist America’s small businesses.
Additionally, Ware has served as SSA’s acting IG since September 2024, overseeing the agency’s administration of over a trillion dollars in annual benefits impacting more than 72 million people, including retirees, disabled workers, and other qualified persons needing income security.
Prior to joining the SBA, Ware spent more than 25 years at the Interior Department, where he began his Federal IG career.
