Image: Leonard Zhukovsky/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe VA has said that 51 percent of the disclosures to a special office established there in mid-2017 to receive whistleblower disclosures and complaints have not qualified for protection under whistleblower law.
Under that law, a disclosure must meet certain criteria to warrant protection of the employee: a violation of a law, rule or regulation; abuse of authority; gross mismanagement; a substantial and specific danger to public health; and such danger to safety.
Of all disclosures in that time, those made up 20, 7, 3, 1 and 1 percent, respectively. Another 16 percent involved retaliation against whistleblowers.
For calendar year 2018, the office reported receiving 2,595 disclosures, of which two-thirds, 1,736, did not qualify as whistleblowing.
