Administration dismisses 1000+ whistleblower cases: "no waste, fraud or abuse in the federal government that deserves investigation"

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility: News ReleasesFebruary 23, 2005 | Contact: Chas Offutt (202) 265-7337 | MORE THAN A THOUSAND WHISTLEBLOWER CASES DUMPED —

Special Counsel Dismisses Hundreds of Disclosures and Complaints in Past Year

The U.S. Special Counsel has dismissed more than 1,000 whistleblower cases in the past year, according to a letter from the Bush-appointed Special Counsel released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The Special Counsel appears to have taken action in very few, if any, of these cases and has yet to represent a single whistleblower in an employment case.

According to the figures released by Bloch, in the past year the Office of Special Counsel—

* Dismissed or otherwise disposed of 600 whistleblower disclosures where civil servants have reported waste, fraud, threats to public safety and violations of law. Bloch has yet to announce a single case where he has ordered an investigation into the employee’s charges. Bloch says that 100 disclosures are still pending; and
* Made 470 claims of retaliation disappear. In not one of these cases did Bloch’s office affirmatively represent a whistleblower to obtain relief before the civil service court system, called the Merit Systems Protection Board. Bloch says that another 30 retaliation cases remain in the backlog.

In order to speed dismissals, Bloch instituted a rule forbidding his staff from contacting a whistleblower if their disclosure was deemed incomplete or ambiguous. Instead, OSC would simply dismiss the matter. As a result, hundreds of whistleblowers never had a chance to justify why their cases had merit.

“According to Scott Bloch there is no waste, fraud or abuse in the federal government that deserves investigation,” ...