The Department of Energy IG has issued a report heavily critical of the Bonneville Power Administration for whistleblower retaliation and hiring practices that discriminated against veterans.
The report also faults DoE for lacking oversight that could have stopped or prevented the illegal activities including modifying a job announcement (at the advice of management) to ensure a particular veteran would be unlikely to qualify, an attempt to remove HR staff that questioned illegal hiring practices, and a lack of response from DoE’s Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer to "obvious early warning signals and other indications that Bonneville may have required enhanced monitoring."
According to the IG, Bonneville’s hiring practices disadvantaged veterans and other applicants, it consistently manipulated the applicant rating process, and did not fully disclose to DoE that the inappropriate personnel practices had occurred.
Bonneville did not notify the affected applicants or initiate corrective actions required to remedy the inappropriate practices, the IG found, faulting the management culture at the agency and citing "a massive breakdown in procedures, processes and management attentiveness at several levels of Bonneville’s operation."
DoE reportedly concurred with the report and is taking corrective actions.
