The Office of Special Counsel (OSC), the federal agency responsible for processing whistleblower disclosures and retaliation cases, is fulfilling a tall order through government-wide expansion of its more than decade-old whistleblower education and outreach program.

The Obama administration’s National Action Plan (NAP) 2.0 requires all federal agencies to become certified with OSC’s 2302(c) Certification Program, which aims to “increase awareness of prohibited personnel practices and employee rights and remedies within the federal workplaces.” OSC recently announced that the certification program is its Open Government Plan (OGP) flagship initiative, signaling a significant transition from the 2012 passage of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) to its effective implementation.

The OSC has also acted on recommendations by GAP and coalition partners to release select redacted Prohibited Personnel Practices reports – a noteworthy step toward greater transparency practices.

OSC’s Certification Program is ripe for support, given the documented need for a systematic whistleblower protection education campaign throughout the federal government. A 2014 Federal News Radio survey found that only 14 percent of federal employees surveyed feel that there are enough protections in place to safely report waste, fraud or abuse. According to a 2011 report by the Merit Systems Protection Board, only 55 percent of federal employees agreed that their agency “had educated them about what their rights would be if they disclosed wrongdoing.”

In order to complete OSC’s Certification Program, each agency must meet the following requirements:

  • Place informational posters at agency facilities
  • Provide information about the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA)/WPEA (including the Prohibited Personnel Practices) to new employees as part of the orientation process
  • Provide information to current employees about the WPA/WPEA
  • Train supervisors on the WPA/WPEA
  • Display a link to OSC’s website on the agency’s website or intranet

In addition, agency websites must include information about “anti-gag” protections made permanent under the WPEA. Specifically, agency nondisclosure policies must include an explicit statement notifying employees of their rights and responsibilities under whistleblower protection laws. OSC guidelines for effective agency compliance can be found here.

As GAP Legal Director Tom Devine and I asserted over the summer in an op-ed for The Hill, “Training for these new rights is their foundation to move from paper to reality. That may be the hardest part. It means changing deeply ingrained patterns of bureaucratic intolerance for those who challenge abuses of power. Unfortunately, training is time-consuming, expensive and difficult work, and the OGP is an unfunded mandate.”

Since the second NAP requirement, unprecedented numbers of agencies have completed or are currently undergoing the certification process, and GAP will continue to monitor agency progress of 2302(c) Certification in the months to come. However, OSC and agencies would benefit from dedicated funds for completion of the 2302(c) Certification. As Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner recently testifiedbefore the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee, OSC has one of the smallest budgets of any federal law enforcement agency, yet it has received a near 30 percent increase in whistleblower disclosures and retaliation cases compared to last year. The NAP Whistleblower Protection commitment will benefit the civil service and taxpayers alike, but it remains an ambitious unfunded mandate that may not realize its full potential due to limited resources.

Civil society can provide significant reinforcement for OSC’s dedicated education initiative and for NAP implementation more broadly. For instance, in September, GAP and our sister organization Project On Government Oversight collaborated with the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General to provide a training to the government-wide Whistleblower Ombudsman (WBO) Working Group, including how to work effectively with whistleblowers and best-practices for WBO websites.

Government agencies interested in receiving GAP whistleblower training should contact Shanna Devine at 202.457.0034, ext. 132 or [email protected]. As a nonprofit organization, GAP offers its trainings at no cost.

 

Shanna Devine is Legislative Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.