Whistleblower Protection

There is a consensus among experts in organizational culture that an organization's beliefs and values affect the behavior of its members. If employees believe that an organization's culture may not protect them from reprisal or may even support reprisal, they may hesitate to come forward to report misconduct. This report provides information on the awareness and level of confidence that employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), particularly medical employees, have about whistleblower protection. GAO (1) reviews steps that VA has taken since the passage of the 1994 Whistleblower Protection Act amendments to inform its employees about their rights to protection against reprisal when reporting misconduct, (2) evaluates the extent to which VA employees are aware of their rights to such protection, and (3) evaluates the extent to which VA employees are willing to report misconduct in VA operations should they become aware of it. GAO also provides information on the number and the disposition of whistleblower reprisal complaints filed by VA workers with agencies responsible for providing whistleblower protection.

GAO noted that: (1) the 1994 amendments to the Whistleblower Protection Act require federal agencies to inform employees about their protection rights and to consult with the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) in developing an educational approach; (2) from the enactment of the 1994 Whistleblower Protection Act amendments until March 1999, VA headquarters did little to inform its employees about their rights to protection against reprisal when reporting misconduct; (3) in March 1999, the Secretary of VA sent a memorandum to all employees stating that whistleblower reprisal would not be tolerated, describing how employees could seek relief within VA if they believed they had been reprised against, and listing agencies in addition to VA they could contact concerning reprisal; (4) in March 1999, a review team was charged with identifying ways to inform VA employees about their rights and supervisors about their responsibilities concerning whistleblowing; (5) some of the team's recommendations have been implemented; (6) VA has not indicated whether it plans to measure the effectiveness of methods of informing employees of their rights; (7) since March 1999, VA has consulted with OSC in developing an educational approach on whistleblower protection, as required by the Whistleblower Protection Act; (8) despite VA's actions, GAO's survey results indicate that the majority of VA employees had limited, or no, knowledge about their rights to whistleblower protection; (9) on their willingness to report misconduct, 83 percent of VA employees supported from a great to very great extent the idea that VA employees should report misconduct, but a smaller number, about 50 percent, would be either generally or very willing to report it if they became aware of misconduct; (10) GAO's survey results concerning the willingness of VA employees to report misconduct indicate that a fear of reprisal in the existing organizational culture could deter VA employees from coming forth with allegations of misconduct; (11) VA did not know the extent or outcomes of all VA whistleblower reprisal complaints filed within VA or with other agencies; (12) in addition, VA officials from the offices of Human Resources and the VA Inspector General said that they also did not know what actions VA took against VA managers when reprisal occurred; and (13) data on complaints and outcomes could be used to determine what actions VA could take to better ensure that its policy of no tolerance for reprisal is followed.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone: