With the confirmation of Robert Gates as secretary of defense assured, Sen. Susan Collins, a member of the Armed Services Committee, made a smart move during his confirmation hearing yesterday by asking Mr. Gates whether he would back the reappointment of the special inspector general for Iraq. The role is important, and the supportive response from the next defense secretary was welcome.

Special Inspector General Stuart Bowen, appointed by the president, began work in January 2004. He has 55 auditors and inspectors in Iraq and has produced about 300 reports on companies such as Bechtel, Parsons and Halliburton. Sometimes those reports have embarrassed the White House, leading some to speculate that the provision inserted in the Defense authorization bill that would end his term next year was at the executive branch’s direction.

Fortunately, Mr. Gates, as a member of the Iraq Study Group, had encountered Mr. Bowen already and found that he had made “constructive contributions to the war effort.” Enough members of Congress have expressed support for a bill by Sens. Collins and Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold that it is moving swiftly through the Senate; success in the House, however, is less assured, so the backing by Mr. Gates mattered.

The monetary cost of the war becomes more important by the month, as projects are found to have been left uncompleted or completed in a slipshod way and as the increased fighting in Iraq makes it easier to leave billions of dollars in projects unexamined. The response that the Pentagon’s acting inspector general can handle the Iraqi work was refuted in October, according to news reports, when it was revealed in House testimony that the office had no agents in Iraq.

Killing Mr. Bowen’s position by Oct. 1 of next year would mean that his office would begin wrapping up its work by the end of this calendar year. According to Sen. Collins, Mr. Bowen’s office “has proven to be a much-needed watchdog auditing reconstruction contracts in Iraq and spotlighting numerous cases of waste, fraud and abuse,” and the special inspector general himself “has been an aggressive, independent leader.”

Whatever the original intentions behind the attempt to eliminate this level of oversight, it is important now to restore the office funding and keep its inspectors aggressively ensuring that work in Iraq is done as required and that U.S. tax dollars are being used as intended. Getting support from Mr. Gates on the issue will help achieve those goals.