Acting Special Counsel Seeks More Funds for Agency
By GREGG CARLSTROM
November 11, 2008
The high-profile controversy that has swirled for months around the tiny Office of Special Counsel has obscured one of the independent agency’s biggest problems: a need for more money and staff to keep up with its growing workload.
The office enforces the Hatch Act, protects federal employees from whistleblower retaliation, and protects military reservists from adverse actions by their employers. It’s been in the limelight because of its former director, Scott Bloch, a controversial figure who was disliked by lawmakers of both parties.
Bloch was also the subject of an embarrassing FBI search of his office and home, allegedly to look for evidence that he impeded an investigation into retaliation against his employees. Bloch was forced to resign by the White House last month.
Now, Bloch’s former deputy, William Reukauf, is temporarily in charge of the office and trying to get it back on solid footing.
“My priority is to put the agency in as healthy a position as possible with regard to its budget, case processing and enforcement,” Reukauf said in an interview last week. “I want to leave a healthy situation for the new special counsel.”
Reukauf is crafting a 2010 budget that asks for a sizable increase. He wouldn’t say how much but he said OSC is seriously understaffed.
“We have a problem in terms of resources in some areas,” Reukauf said.
The biggest shortfall is in the office responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from using government resources for partisan politics. The office had to review 280 Hatch Act complaints in fiscal 2007; in 2008, that figure jumped to 444.
The whistleblower disclosure unit which reviews initial complaints by whistleblowers to see if they merit further attention has also seen its workload increase.
Several OSC employees contacted by Federal Times said morale at the office has improved since Bloch’s departure. Bloch had been criticized for years by good-government groups and members of Congress who accuse him of politicizing the office. The FBI raided his home and office in May under grand jury subpoenas, allegedly in search of proof that Bloch destroyed evidence connected to a whistleblower retaliation case in his office.
Reukauf wouldn’t discuss the agency’s morale during Bloch’s tenure.
“Morale is good now,” he said. “This has been a big change, but … people are in high spirits.”
He gave Bloch credit for some improvements at OSC over the past few years. The agency reduced its backlog of whistleblower complaints, and Reukauf said the agency was also doing a good job enforcing the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act, which prohibits adverse action against military reservists.
He also weighed in on the Detroit field office, the subject of some controversy over the past few years. Bloch created the office in 2004 and reassigned several Washington-based employees to work there; most of those employees say the relocation was retaliation against whistleblowers within the agency.
Critics say the field office doesn’t have enough work to justify its existence. But Reukauf said it was operating at “full capacity,” and said he had no immediate plans to close it.
“It’s not my thought that I should do any major reorganization,” Reukauf said. “That’s for the political appointees, for the next special counsel.”
There isn’t much of a learning curve for the newly appointed acting special counsel. This is Reukauf’s third stint in charge of the Office of Special Counsel; he also ran the agency before Bloch took office, and before Bloch’s predecessor, Elaine Kaplan. Reukauf said he wanted to act as a caretaker for the agency until a new special counsel is confirmed next year.
That means no major priorities and no immediate plans to reorganize the office.
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