The IG also found that “multiple” final agency decisions had been backdated. Image: Mark Gomez/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe Department of Interior used the wrong legal standard, one more favorable to the employee, when issuing “final agency decisions” in EEO complaints by employees over two years starting in September 2019, an inspector general audit has said.
In those decisions, which review findings by EEO investigators of complaints, discrimination is to be found on a showing by the “preponderance of the evidence”—that it was more likely than not that the alleged discrimination occurred. However, it said that during that period, the office used a standard of viewing the evidence “in the light most favorable to the complainant” in which “all justifiable inferences” are drawn in the complainant’s favor.
The report said Interior management agreed with recommendations to review final agency decisions during that period to see if decisions in favor of the employee met the higher standard, determine whether any disciplinary action had been taken against management officials as a result of those decisions, and “take corrective action as available and appropriate.”
The IG also found that “multiple” final agency decisions had been backdated, which it concluded was done to make it appear that they had been issued within a timeframe set by the EEO process when in fact they had not. The EEOC recently reported that the percentages of decisions meeting that standard have been declining government-wide.
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