The Government Accountability Project, a non-profit
government and corporate accountability group, has
called on federal employees who have filed
whistleblower complaints with the Office of Special
Counsel to speak up as to whether their cases were
heard or if they have been responded to.
“GAP is seeking your help to learn the truth about
what U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch and the OSC
has done with hundreds of whistleblower complaints
filed by federal workers since January 2004,” read
the group’s “action alert.”
“The best way to learn the truth about the
disposition of whistleblower cases by the OSC in
the last eighteen months is through you,” the alert
said.
The OSC has been under scrutiny since early this year
after former deputy director for the Justice
Department’s task force for faith-based and community
initiatives, Scott Bloch, was appointed as special
counsel and eventually under took management changes
including the forced relocation of 12 attorneys and
investigators — 20 percent of his office’s staff –
from Washington D.C. to field offices throughout
the country.
Bloch inherited a hefty caseload when he took over,
but GAP said the OSC has dumped about 1,000 cases
and whistleblower disclosures without investigation
by the OSC, often without even calling the whistleblower.
Watchdog groups including GAP and the Project on
Government Oversight, sent a letter to the Senate
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
alleging the relocations Bloch ordered were part of
an effort to “purge” the OSC of dissent and replace
it with “hand picked loyalists,” citing that those
tapped for relocation were careerists hired before
Bloch’s arrival. The letter also said they had
questioned OSC management strategy or practices
made by Bloch.
Lawmakers are planning oversight hearings partly
at the promptings of these groups.
