Here’s what happens when there’s too little oversight: Lawmakers can slip language into a monstrous bill to eliminate an award-winning agency that has identified billions of wasted dollars.

Now imagine the reconstruction of Iraq under the same minimal oversight. Scary thought.

This week, a bill co-authored by Sen. Susan Collins and supported by a cadre of bipartisan senators, including Sen. Olympia Snowe, to save the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction rocketed through the Senate toward the House of Representatives.

Spokespersons for Collins said the senator made saving SIGIR a priority for this lame-duck session of Congress, after a sunset for the agency was written into a defense bill earlier this year. SIGIR has uncovered billions in wasted taxpayer dollars and illegal contractor behavior in Iraq, and contributed to four criminal convictions.

Contractor oversight in Iraq is imperative. Allegations of reckless contractors putting civilian employees in harm’s way were heard in September on Capitol Hill, the same week a New Gloucester man, Darrell Wetherbee, was killed in Tikrit while working for a private security company.

The hearings and Wetherbee’s death underscored the need for strict oversight; the agency with this duty is SIGIR. While we can laud SIGIR’s accomplishments, perhaps the best words come from a weightier voice: The President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency.

On Oct. 24, the council gave SIGIR a major award for “integrity, determination and courage in providing independent oversight and unbiased review of the United States’ reconstruction efforts in Iraq,” and “exemplifying the highest ideal of government service.”

“SIGIR’s efforts greatly increased the public confidence in government in detecting fraud, waste and abuse,” the council said, while “providing policies to promote economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the reconstruction of Iraq.”

Powerful words, but hollow now with the uncovering of the effort to sunset SIGIR.

The Associated Press cited a California lawmaker, Rep. Duncan Hunter, as the source of the SIGIR sunset. If he is the villain, then Collins, her co-author Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and all Senate co-sponsors are the heroes. Their swift action to restore the office is appreciated.

While nobody likes a bean counter or tattle-tale, Congress should be immune to such schoolyard logic. SIGIR has proved its worth to U.S. taxpayers and should operate without political interference.

We urge swift House approval of its preservation, and applaud Collins for her leadership.