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Press Release Published: Oct 8, 2013

Energy IG Report Offers New Details on Veteran Discrimination, Whistleblower Retaliation

WASHINGTON – Department of Energy Inspector General Gregory Friedman issued a scathing report today excoriating the Bonneville Power Administration for whistleblower retaliation and hiring practices that discriminated against veterans, and its parent agency, the Department of Energy, for a complete lack of oversight that could have halted or prevented these illegal activities.

“Today’s report offers shocking new details about the Bonneville Power Administration’s illegal hiring practices that discriminated against veterans and the agency’s culture of intimidation toward whistleblowers,” said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. “The Inspector General goes on to blame the Department of Energy for shirking its oversight responsibility and ignoring ‘obvious early warning signals’ that could have stopped these illegal practices over a year ago.”

The IG report noted the following new information:

  • BPA’s illegal and discriminatory hiring practices were deliberate, and in one instance actions were taken with the intention of keeping a specific veteran from being able to qualify for a job opening.
    •  “One of Bonneville’s staff attorneys provided guidance that likely facilitated [these discriminatory practices].  Specifically, the attorney’s advice to a [Human Capital Management] official described how to modify the [job] announcement so that the veteran would be unlikely to qualify. . . . Bonneville subsequently executed the plan and, as predicted, the veteran did not qualify.”
    •  “[I]t strains credulity to believe that HCM staff and Bonneville’s management chain failed to recognize that veterans were being treated unfairly.  We found Bonneville’s insensitivity in these matters to be disturbing.”
  • BPA retaliated against numerous whistleblowers, including both whistleblowers who initially questioned the illegal hiring practices.
    •  “The most egregious examples of questionable activity we observed were Bonneville’s efforts to remove both [Human Capital Management] staff members who initially questioned the category rating practice from Federal service . . . Bonneville attempted to portray this as an isolated incident when, in fact, a review commissioned by Bonneville itself revealed that there were a number of individuals who had acted in a similar manner.  This contradiction was inexplicable.”
  • DOE shirked its BPA oversight responsibilities
    • “There were obvious early warning signals and other indications that Bonneville may have required enhanced monitoring of its hiring activities.  Yet, we found that the Department’s Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer had not adequately responded.”
    • “The Department did not intervene and compel compliance when Bonneville failed to submit quarterly self-audits intended to ensure that personnel processing practices were consistent with merit system principles and Department policies.” 
    • “Clearly, more aggressive actions on the Department’s part could have aided in preventing, or at least detecting, and remediating these problems at Bonneville.”
  • BPA’s illegal practices and the Department’s lack of aggressive action could cost U.S taxpayers and BPA customers millions
    • “Corrective actions will be exceedingly costly.  As of September 2013, the Department estimated that it will cost about $1.7 million through FY 2014 for Department and contractor staff to reconstruct and/or review approximately 1,200 delegated examining and merit promotion cases.”
    •  “The impact of Bonneville’s improper hiring practices is widespread, has subjected affected individuals to economic consequences, has disrupted Department and Bonneville operations, and has exposed the Department to a variety of legal challenges.  Most importantly, adversely impacted veterans . .  have not received promised benefits.”
    • “In total, the immediate costs to quantify the extent of the problem and design corrective action, not including the actual costs needed to remedy the erroneous appointments and discriminatory practices, will likely exceed $3 million – a cost that will have to be absorbed in large part by Bonneville’s ratepayers.”

“The Committee will continue its oversight of the DOE and the BPA to ensure that veterans receive the benefits to which they are entitled, and that whistleblowers are not threatened when exposing wrongdoing,” the Chairman continued.

In response to a July 16th management alert issued by the IG noting that BPA had “apparently proposed or recently executed a number of personnel actions against certain employees who have cooperated with [the IG’s] review,” Chairman Issa wrote a letter to DOE Deputy Secretary Daniel Poneman seeking documents related to the personnel actions.

After the Committee’s first letter, a senior BPA official told Committee investigators that Deputy Secretary Poneman had issued a gag order on BPA employees, preventing them from talking with “anyone” regarding these allegations—including congressional investigators. In a follow-up letter on July 17th, Issa instructed Poneman to immediately reverse the gag order.

In August, the Committee held a hearing in part to secure an unqualified commitment from Deputy Secretary Ponenman that gag orders would be lifted and whistleblower retaliation would not be tolerated.

BPA is a self-funded non-profit agency of the Department of Energy that generates over $3.3 billion in revenue annually by selling its products and services.  About one third of the electric power used in the Northwest comes from BPA.  The Bonneville Power Administration also “operates and maintains about three-fourths of the high-voltage transmission in its service territory,” which includes parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, California, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming.