graphic File path graphic Progress: 62.5 percent heading level 3 Chapter 4 heading level 1 Starting and Monitoring Agency Investigations LEGAL DISCLAIMER: The material in this e course is provided for informational purposes only. Nothing in this email should be construed as legal advice. Before you act on any of the material in this guide, the authors STRONGLY urge you to seek legal counsel. Choosing to blow the whistle is rarely the first step an employee takes after witnessing wrongdoing. Your first instinct may be to tell management what you've seen so that they can fix the problem and you can do your job properly. But this can be a mistake: management may label you a troublemaker, and retaliate against you. Management may also make you the scapegoat in the event that the information is leaked and the agency is forced to respond. Consulting legal counsel first is a good cautionary course of action, especially if you decide to file a formal disclosure outside of your chain of command such as with an inspector general's office, Congress, the Office of Special Counsel, or through other official channels. graphic document heading level 2 Inspectors general Every major federal agency has an inspector general (IG). One of an IG's main roles is to investigate whistleblower disclosures of internal fraud, waste, abuse, or misconduct. You can file a disclosure with an IG through its hotline. I Gs can investigate claims of retaliation, but they have no real authority to negotiate relief for whistleblowers who may have suffered retaliation. I Gs also have no authority to pursue legal action in the event that a case can be prosecuted that decision has to be made by an attorney that works for the Department of Justice. An IG office is a bureaucracy too and can have the same dysfunctions and limitations as any other workplace. While I Gs are supposed to be independent of the agencies they oversee, this isn’t always the case. Some I Gs are actually appointed by the head of the organization they monitor, creating a structural conflict of interest. Beware: there have been numerous instances of whistleblower retaliation even within IG offices. heading level 2 What to know about inspectors general They have no corrective action power. I Gs can only make findings and recommendations about an issue, but they have no ability to compel the agency to follow them. They don’t guarantee confidentiality. The law lets the IG decide whether they will share your identity with your management, by saying that the IG should keep your identity confidential unless it determines such disclosure is unavoidable during the course of the investigation. And even if they don’t directly reveal your identity, they may conduct their inquiry in a way that makes your identity patently obvious. So in general, it is wise for either you or your counsel to negotiate signed confidentiality agreements with the IG. They lack deadlines. The IG’s office has no mandate for when to respond to a disclosure, if at all. An IG can take years to investigate a disclosure of wrongdoing and even if they conduct an investigation and draft a report of its findings, the IG is under no obligation to publicly release that report. They will often avoid controversy. An IG could, for example, focus on a $5,000 discrepancy while ignoring the $500 million issue that has fiery political implications. They can take action against you. Your motivation for reporting can become the subject of an IG investigation. heading level 2 Congress While many whistleblowers think that Congress will fix their problems, a Congressional solution is the exception rather than the rule. While Congress sometimes conducts investigations and hearings, the bulk of that is usually done by an IG office or the Government Accountability Office. REMEMBER: Congress is a big place with a lot of busy people who have competing priorities many of which are driven by partisan and political interests. Keep in mind, too, that, if you go to Congress, you risk having your identity inadvertently exposed to your agency. That said, developing a Congressional ally can help in two ways: list with 2 items 1. Members of Congress often have considerable media presences, which means your message may get public exposure. 2. It’s harder for an agency to retaliate against a whistleblower whose disclosures are sponsored by a Member. out of list If you do decide to contact a Member, don’t just send a letter to an office out of the blue. It could put you at risk for exposure if the Member or office staff reach out to the agency and it may not even reach the Member’s attention. Before you decide to contact a Member, consider: list with 3 items bullet Does the Member have a political stake (including special interest contributions)? bullet Is the Member a chairperson or a ranking member of a committee or subcommittee? bullet Are you or someone else involved in your issue a constituent of the Member? out of list Once you have decided to approach a Member: list with 3 items bullet Be truthful bullet Be VERY concise their time is valuable bullet Realize that Congressional aides not the Member will be working your case. Do the work for staff wherever possible (such as researching documents and ghostwriting questions or communications). out of list If a Member takes up your case, it is potentially a HUGE asset, but remember that no individual Member has authority over the executive branch. So, even in the face of Congressional opposition, an executive agency can still proceed to do the wrong thing. heading level 2 Office of Special Counsel: An alternate route The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is a place where whistleblowers can lodge complaints of retaliation, but it is also a place where a federal employee can go to blow the whistle on waste, fraud, or abuse. heading level 3 Strengths of going to OSC: It forces the agency to address your complaint. Often agencies will ignore whistleblower disclosures as long as possible, with the hope that they will blow over, but that is not an option when OSC is involved. It subjects the agency’s investigations to oversight. This makes it harder for the agency to rewrite or brush aside the difficult problems raised by the whistleblower. OSC also gives you a chance to comment on their investigation and includes your comments in the official record. It can give you validation and protection. If OSC finds substantial likelihood, it is certifying your allegations are credible. This can also make your story more credible to the press, as it is less of an editorial risk to publish. This finding also makes it easier to successfully claim retaliation if agency management takes adverse employment actions against you. Your identity is protected. OSC may not disclose a whistleblower’s identity unless the individual consents or the OSC feels disclosure of identity is necessary due to imminent danger to the public or imminent violation of criminal law. heading level 3 Limitations of the OSC: OSC doesn’t meet its own deadlines. Even though there are deadlines, OSC routinely exceeds them and awards extension after extension The process has no teeth. OSC has no corrective power to force the agency to desist from any wrongful practice Confidentiality can be an illusion. It can be easy for the agency to identify you based on the issues and actions associated with the investigation and when they take retaliatory action against you, they can claim that they didn’t know you were a whistleblower Navigating bureaucracy can be a tricky thing. It is generally a wise decision to consult legal counsel before making a disclosure to anyone within your workplace or outside of your chain of command. Legal counsel can best advise you on what protections are available to you and how best to take advantage of them, as well as official procedures and deadlines you should know. link READ CHAPTER 4 right arrow There are many avenues to consider for filing a formal disclosure. For more on what to expect and how to prepare yourself, read our full survival guide, Caught Between Conscience and Career. link Jump link into Chapter 4 now dot table with 1 rows and 2 columns row 1 column 1 link View in browser link Unsubscribe Material for this e course is pulled from link Caught Between Conscience and Career , a joint effort of the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), Government Accountability Project, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibiltiy (PEER). column 2 The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that investigates and exposes waste, corruption, abuse of power, and when the government fails to serve the public or silences those who report wrongdoing. We champion reforms to achieve a more effective, ethical, and accountable federal government that safeguards constitutional principles. 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