Agencies have authority to grant rewards $10,000 and $25,000 and sometimes more including to SES members and former federal employees. Image: Aleksandra.Vitorovic/Shutterstock.com
The Office of Special Counsel has said it will recommend that agencies pay monetary awards to whistleblowers who make disclosures that lead to cost savings recovered or other significant impacts, as what it called “an incentive for employees to come forward with disclosures.”
Agencies have authority to grant rewards to those “whose efforts contribute to the efficiency, economy, or improved operation of the government,” including SES members as well as former federal employees, says the policy. Those awards can be up to $10,000, at an agency’s discretion, between $10,000 and $25,000 with OPM approval and more than $25,000 with Presidential approval.
The OSC said it its recommendations “will primarily involve substantiated disclosures that potentially result in cost savings or cost recovery to the government or to those who receive government services. This would likely include cases where the agency investigation of disclosures identifies fraud or waste or where substantiated disclosures otherwise improve the efficiency of the federal government.”
“There may be other appropriate cases that do not involve cost savings, including disclosures that improve health or safety, that expose criminal behavior, or that potentially result in some notable improvement or correction to policies or practices,” it says.
It adds: “OSC will not recommend an award if the whistleblower participated in the wrongdoing or knowingly benefited from the wrongdoing or if the whistleblower knowingly made or provided documents containing false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements or representations.”
The OSC said that while it cannot compel agencies to pay awards, it will note those recommendations in its reports to the White House and Congress on the outcome of investigations into whistleblower disclosures.
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