Hello,

The start of a new year presents an opportunity to remind USDA employees of their responsibility to promote a workplace free from retaliation/reprisal. 

Whistleblowers are important to a proper functioning government, and law prohibits retaliation/reprisal towards a person because of whistleblowing. As generally understood, federal statutes protect whistleblowers who report wrongdoing internally to a supervisor/ manager—as the majority of whistleblowers do—so that their management has an opportunity to address the issue. However, the statutes also protect whistleblowers who choose to report outside of their chain of command (internally or externally) due to fears of retaliation/reprisal by their management. A whistleblower may legally disclose their protected allegation(s) to various entities individually or simultaneously. These include their supervisor/manager, the USDA Office of Inspector General Hotline, the USDA Whistleblower Protection Coordinator, members of Congress, the Office of Special Counsel and the Merit Systems Protection Board.

The OSC posters contains four documents (prohibited personnel practices) that are required to be displayed in all USDA workspaces. New employees, upon onboarding, are required to receive the OSC posters and the other two OSC documents ((know your rights, OSC: your rights as a federal employee). The Whistleblower FAQs is a resource guide for information pertaining to USDA OIG, OSC, and whistleblower-related questions. We are providing all employees these documents here as well. 

The Whistleblower Protection Coordinator, an OIG employee, serves as an educational resource for all of the department and subunits. The WPC is responsible for informing departmental and agency employees about prohibitions on retaliation/reprisal for protected disclosures. The WPC educates those who have made, or are contemplating making, a protected disclosure about the rights and remedies against retaliation for such disclosures. However, the WPC is prohibited from acting as employees’ or former employees’ legal representative, agent or advocate. The WPC can be contacted at OIGWPC@oig.usda.gov. 

Title 5 U.S.C. § 2302 (b) (8) [Prohibited Personnel Practices] provides that it is a prohibited personnel practice to retaliate against specified categories of individuals for "any disclosure of information ... which the employee or applicant reasonably believes evidences (i) any violation of any law, rule, or regulation, or (ii) gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety." In 2016, Title 41 U.S.C. § 4712 permanently extended protections against whistleblower retaliation to the following additional specified categories of individuals: personal services contractors, and employees of contractors, subcontractors, grantees, and sub-grantees.

USDA personnel who possess a security clearance also have a secure and legal mechanism within USDA to make a disclosure pertaining to classified material. USDA has two secure phone lines that individuals can call to make a disclosure involving classified information. The secure phone numbers are (816) 926-7937 and (202) 720-9731. The OIG representative answering either number has the necessary national security clearance and special accesses to receive complaints from USDA personnel who possess a security clearance. The complainant is required to use a secure line to file a complaint related to classified information.

P.L. 115-73, also referred to as the Dr. Chris Kirkpatrick Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017 (Kirkpatrick Act), strengthened remedies available to current and former federal employee whistleblowers and created new informative requirements and disciplinary guidance for departments and agencies to implement. The Kirkpatrick Act requires a department or agency head to take disciplinary action against supervisors/managers who have been proven to have committed any one of the following three specific PPPs:  1. Retaliation against a whistleblower; 2. Retaliation against an employee for exercising their right to grieve or file an EEO complaint; and 3. Accessing medical records in combination with other PPP.  For the first such offense, the head of the department/agency, “shall propose suspending the supervisor [/manager] for a period of not less than 3 days,” and may propose additional action such as a reduction in grade or pay. For the second such offense, the department/agency head shall propose removal of the supervisor/manager. The Kirkpatrick Act requires that departments/agencies inform each new employee of the rights and remedies available under Title 5 U.S.C. § 2302 no later than 180 days after the date on which the employee is appointed.

If you wish to report any type of non-classified information allegation, to include retaliation/reprisal, contact the USDA OIG Hotline by completing the form located at USDA OIG Hotline. The hotline serves to receive reported allegations of violations of law and regulations relating to USDA programs, including the following: 

Criminal activity, such as: bribery, smuggling, theft, fraud, endangerment of public health or safety 

• Mismanagement/waste of funds 
• Workplace violence
• Employee misconduct
• Research misconduct
• Conflict of interest
• Fraud in USDA contracts

The Whistleblower Protection Coordinator has posted informational resources on the USDA website: USDA WPC. Additionally, the WPC website provides informational material and has links to OSC and MSPB. All USDA senior officials, supervisors, managers, employees, personal services contractors and employees of contractors, subcontractors, grantees and sub-grantees are encouraged to review the materials located at the WPC’s website and become familiar with the prohibition against taking retaliatory/reprisal actions against whistleblowers. 

Sincerely,

USDA Whistleblower Protection Coordinator