Top US accountability officer quits over job constraints

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The head of the audit and investigative arm of the US Congress announced his resignation Friday, citing "real limitations" on what he could do.

David Walker, 51, a respected voice on fiscal matters, said he was making an early departure from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) to head a new public interest foundation.

"As Comptroller General of the United States and head of the GAO, there are real limitations on what I can do and say in connection with key public policy issues, especially issues that directly relate to GAO's client -- the Congress," Walker said in a statement.

He did not elaborate but Walker last year issued an unusually downbeat assessment of his country's future in a report that drew parallels with the end of...