Bush Administration Ignores Whistleblowers - July 28, 2003 Vol. 4 No. 15

July 28, 2003 Vol. 4 No. 15:

Published: 07/28/2003

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Bush Administration Ignores Whistleblowers

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) recently released statistics showing the government’s failure to act on a growing backlog of whistleblower cases. The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is the small federal office charged with reviewing whistleblower claims backlog of cases.

PEER represents employees who have filed whistleblower disclosures, defending an important avenue for employees looking to root out waste, fraud and corruption in federal agencies. However, even though employees are blowing the whistle more and more over the last few years, the Bush administration does not appear to be listening. Law requires OSC to resolve cases within 15 working days, however most of the reports in the backlog have sat for more than six months. At the beginning of June 2003, OSC had a backlog of 628 whistleblower allegations awaiting review.

While a recent increase in whistleblowing certainly contributes to the situation, it does not fully explain the ballooning backlog. Records show that the number of whistleblower cases were up 46 percent from 380 filed in fiscal year 2001 to 555 cases in fiscal year 2002. However, the backlog has grown far more than 46 percent. In fact, the current backlog is up more than 100 percent, or double the number of unresolved cases that OSC had at the end of fiscal year 2001.

Leadership is another factor affecting the backlog. Currently, the Special Counsel position is still vacant, depriving OSC of leadership. The Bush administration nominated Scott Bloch, currently deputy for “Faith-based Initiatives” at the Justice Department, for the Special Counsel position. PEER noted that Bloch has limited whistleblower experience and expressed concern that he will not be a strong enough advocate for whistleblowers.

It seems clear that the biggest cause of the backlog is that OSC has inadequate resources to handle these important cases. While OSC has not commented on the reason behind the backlog, Elaine Kaplan, who recently vacated the position of Special Counsel at OSC after five years, remarked that the current caseload warrants as many as 30 employees. Reportedly, OSC currently has fewer than eight full-time employees reviewing whistleblower cases.

PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch noted that, “Hundreds of federal employees risk their careers to blow the whistle, only to find that no one is home to hear it — it’s like dialing 911 and being put on hold.”