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By: FEDweek StaffLarge numbers of Federal Emergency Management Agency employees say they have seen or experienced sexual harassment or sexual misconduct but they generally “did not report it because they did not believe the allegations would be investigated,” according to an IG report.
The auditors largely confirmed that suspicion, saying they were unable to determine whether the agency properly handled half of the more than 300 allegations over 2012-2018 from FEMA employees potentially related to harassment and misconduct such as assault, unwelcome advances or inappropriate comments.
The IG said that like other agencies FEMA has formal policies aimed at preventing and addressing sexual harassment including procedures for reporting and investigating allegations and for reviewing findings for possible disciplinary action under a table of penalties.
However, auditors said that in reviewing case files “we consistently found they were missing” documents such as reports of investigation, managerial inquiry reports, and records of disciplinary actions; in one subcomponent, 97 percent of files reviewed contained incomplete reports or were missing reports. FEMA further did not document whether it reviewed some sexual harassment-related EEO complaints to determine whether potential employee misconduct occurred, it added.
Also, it said that it could find no evidence that the anti-harassment unit had investigated more than half of the 63 sexual harassment or misconduct allegations referred to it in that time, and that of cases it did investigate, 12 took more than 100 days to close and three took more than 200 days, in contrast to the 30-day goal.
Official of that unit said they “did not have the documented processes and policies needed to effectively handle sexual harassment allegations,” which the IG said “risked creating employee skepticism of FEMA’s ability to address alleged harassment.”
That skepticism was reflected in a survey the IG conducted, where 21 percent of respondents said they had personally experienced such behavior and another 24 percent said they had seen it, but in both cases three-fourths did not report it. In both cases that was most commonly because “they did not believe management was supportive of employees reporting such behaviors” or they “did not believe the allegations would be investigated.”
It said management agreed with all five recommendations and already has taken steps to implement four of them.
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