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U.S. Office of Special Counsel
1730 M Street, N.W., Suite 218
Washington, D.C. 20036-4505
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CONGRESS APPLAUDS U.S. OFFICE OF SPECIAL COUNSEL'S SUCCESS ON ITS BACKLOG
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 5/19/05
CONTACT: CATHY DEEDS, 202-254-3607,
CDEEDS@OSC.GOV
Special Counsel Scott J.
Bloch has announced the successful results of the Office of Special
Counsel’s (OSC) case backlog resolution project in a new report, noting that
he made it a top priority in his first year in office. The report charts the
dramatic reduction of the backlog in three OSC divisions in less than a year
and delineates the permanent solutions being implemented.
In a recent letter to the Special Counsel, the
Chairman of the Committee on Government Reform Rep. Tom Davis and
Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce Chairman Rep. Jon Porter congratulated
OSC’s successful efforts to improve services for whistleblowers: “We
appreciate the professional seriousness with which you approached these
recommendations and reduced existing backlogs in the first year following
this report,” the Members wrote. “We continue to be impressed with the
sincerity and pragmatism with which you and all your staff approach your
jobs. You are providing a great service to the American people and the
Federal government by protecting whistleblowers from illegal reprisals.”
The OSC report responds to a March 2004
Government Accountability Office (GAO) report about OSC historic failure to
handle cases prior to Mr. Bloch’s tenure. “Federal employees are the winners
in this success story,” Bloch explained. “The leadership and dedicated
career staff of OSC have truly achieved a remarkable and noteworthy success
by dramatically reducing the Agency’s chronic case backlog in just one
year.”
House Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep.
Tom Davis requested the GAO inquiry in 2003 to assess the independent
Agency’s chronic backlog problem from FY 1997 to FY 2003. The GAO Report,
“U.S. Office of Special Counsel: Strategy for Reducing Persistent Backlog of
Cases Should be Provided to Congress” (GAO 04-36), issued soon after Scott
Bloch took office as Special Counsel, found that the Agency had demonstrated
a chronic inability to process cases in a timely manner which inevitably led
to very large backlogs. The report called for OSC to develop a comprehensive
strategy to address the recurrent failures so that federal employee’s
whistleblower complaints and other allegations would not wither and become
obsolete by the time OSC personnel addressed the complaints.
On May 17, 2005, Special Counsel Bloch responded
to GAO demonstrating tremendous results. Under the new OSC leadership,
backlog reductions in three major units were achieved (Intake, Disclosure,
and Hatch). The Agency has also put in place sound measures and internal
procedures, such as a special unit to address the problem of languishing
cases, to maintain adequate case numbers so justice will be served more
expeditiously. In the midst of the significant achievement, OSC
substantially increased from previous administrations the number of cases
that get more intense investigations during the backlog resolution process.
***
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent
investigative and prosecutorial agency and operates as a secure channel for
disclosures of whistleblower complaints. Its primary mission is to safeguard
the merit system in federal employment by protecting federal employees and
applicants from prohibited personnel practices, especially retaliation for
whistleblowing. OSC also has jurisdiction over the Hatch Act and the
Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. For more
information please visit our web site at www.osc.gov or call 1-800-872-9855.
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