Most of the settlements included monetary awards for the whistleblower, ranging from about $1,800 to over $500,000. Image: Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe numbers of complaints from VA employees alleging reprisal for whistleblowing and other forms of retaliation that are filed with an internal VA office continue to rise although the numbers filed at the Office of Special Counsel have been declining, GAO has said.
In a presentation for a planned House hearing that was postponed, GAO said that complaints filed at the VA Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection involving whistleblower retaliation rose from 577 in fiscal 2020 to 736 in fiscal 2023, while the number of complaints on other grounds rose from 1,594 to 1,972.
It added that the department has settled 71 whistleblower retaliation cases since it started tracking them in 2022. “Most of the settlements included monetary awards for the whistleblower, ranging from about $1,800 to 525,000. In addition, the settlement may also have included salary adjustments or back-pay,” it said.
The total number of reprisal cases filed by VA employees at the OSC meanwhile fell from 1,408 in 2018 to 669 in 2022, with about 70 percent of those involving whistleblower retaliation. Of whistleblower cases, 10 percent resulted in “favorable action” for the employee in 2022, up from just 3 percent in 2018.
The presentation also showed that at the OSC, the allegations are disproved in only 3 percent of whistleblower complaints. By far the most common reason a case was closed, 59 percent, was “insufficient evidence for further action” while deferring to the EEOC process and settlements accounted for nearly all of the rest.
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