Sex Discrimination

Employees at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are reluctant to use the agency's complaint process to deal with sexual harassment because they fear reprisal from managers and because they believe that investigators lack objectivity, sensitivity, and confidence. GAO found that Office of Professional Responsibility investigators sometimes did not obtain all corroborating evidence when looking into complaints and that differences in the rights and remedies afforded by equal employment opportunity and Office of Professional Responsibility investigations were not communicated to the employees. Finally, although training on the agency's sexual-harassment-complaints process was made available to all employees, many persons said that they had received no specialized training. GAO believes that DEA will continue to have problems with sexual harassment unless it changes the way in which it handles sexual harassment allegations. GAO summarized this report in testimony before Congress; see: Sex Discrimination: Agencies' Handling of Sexual Harassment and Related Complaints, by Richard C. Stiener, Director of the Office of Special Investigations, before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service. GAO/T-OSI-94-22, Mar. 8, 1994 (seven pages).

GAO found that: (1) factors impeding the successful implementation of an EEO program at DEA include employee skepticism, dissatisfaction, fear of retaliation, and misunderstanding; (2) DEA employees lack confidence in the competence of EEO counselors and question the sensitivity and objectivity of investigators and complaint processors; (3) employees believe that management responses to reported incidences are insufficient; (4) employees do not understand what constitutes prohibited behavior or what action to take when such behavior is brought to their attention; (5) employees are dissatisfied with the thoroughness and length of time involved in investigating and processing complaints; (6) employees do not believe that disciplinary actions taken are effective deterrents to future harassment; and (7) women agents have identified a lack of enforcement-related assignments and promotion opportunities, career-limiting job assignments, and limited representation of women in managerial positions as factors affecting the retention and promotion of women.