On Friday, Rep. Juanita Millender- McDonald (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Administration Committee, approved a plan proposed by Chairman Bob Ney (R-Ohio) that will begin the process of replacing House Inspector General Steven McNamara, who retired from his post at the end of May.

McNamara was appointed to the accounting job in March 2000, filling a yearlong vacancy in the position.

Ney’s plan, which is similar to the process that was used to find McNamara, is to retain the services of the search firm Korn/Ferry International to find applicants for the position who would then be vetted by a panel of four members of House Administration. The final nomination from the panel would then be reviewed by the Speaker, Majority Leader and Minority Leader.

Ney has tapped Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.) to join him on the panel, while Millender-McDonald named Rep. Zoe Lofgren (Calif.) to be the other Democrat involved in the candidate review.

“Now that the four Members are in place we’re going to move forward as quickly and expeditiously as possible in a bipartisan manner,” said House Administration spokesman Brian Walsh, adding that “the important thing is to find the best candidate, not just a candidate.”

McNamara was only the second person to hold the inspector general post, which was created in 1992 after the House Bank and Post Office scandals had cast doubt on the way the chamber policed itself.

In April of that year, the House approved a package of internal reforms that eliminated the office of the House Postmaster and created the positions of inspector general and director of non-legislative and financial services.

Along with conducting financial audits during his five years in the post, McNamara also stressed the need for fire safely improvements in House facilities and sought to assure the integrity of House information technology systems.

In a floor statement before McNamara’s retirement, Ney praised the inspector general for his strong leadership in conducting “essential reviews of the House’s financial and administrative practices. These reviews and resulting recommendations have helped the House to achieve our present standards of safety, security, information assurance and accountability, and Steve’s role in these worthy institutional achievements cannot be understated.”