Federal Employment

GAO recently began investigating factors that could discourage employees at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers from filing sexual harassment complaints. The complaints GAO examined were handled under a decentralized system that vested responsibility for resolving them with the directors of VA's 171 medical centers. Counseling and investigations were done by employees temporarily assigned to that job. GAO found that (1) one-third of the complaints were rejected on procedural grounds; (2) complaints that were accepted were not investigated promptly, requiring employees to continue working in the offices where sexual harassment had allegedly taken place; (3) about half of the complainants believed that reprisals had been taken or threatened as a result of their complaints. GAO believes that the procedures used for complaint processing did not provide appropriate independence and oversight of complaint resolution. Although the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs is trying to resolve these problems, it will take time to assess the impact of his actions, and concerns persist about the timeliness of complaint resolution and the qualifications and availability of part-time counselors and investigators. GAO also testified on pending legislation that would further change VA's procedures for dealing with sexual harassment cases.