Fed watchdog: headquarters renovation overran budget, no federal crimes found

The finding matters less for what it says about criminality than for what it reveals about governance at an institution whose credibility rests on disciplined oversight. The cost trajectory — driven by inflation, thin bidding and design changes — points to procurement and project-management weaknesses rather than bad faith, which is a harder problem to fix and an easier one to repeat. Whether the Fed tightens its internal capital-project controls, and whether this becomes a line of political scrutiny, is the open question.