Allegations of improper hiring practices at a flagship office for the Obama administration’s vision of a Green Economy have been referred to the U.S. Special Counsel, a prosecutorial office within the White House, according to a report from the Department of Energy’s Inspector-General (IG) released today.
The office is Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) , headed by Assistant Secretary Cathy Zoi. It received $16.8 billion in Recovery Act funds and is a major funder of research into alternative energy technologies. The IG report says that witnesses to its inquiry of an unnamed EERE program said that pressure to get Recovery Act funds out the door “led to the program’s reliance on less than optimal Federal hiring and contracting practices.”
The IG made the referral to Special Counsel after substantiating allegations that an official within EERE showed favoritism towards a potential job applicant, an employee of a DOE contractor, by having the person participate “in key aspects of the hiring action such as preparing the Position Description and developing questions to be answered during the application/interview process.” U.S. Law bans federal officials from showing “any preference or advantage not authorized by law, rule, or regulation to any employee or applicant for employment” The purpose of the law is to ensure open competition for federal jobs and to prevent forms of bribery, corruption and conflict of interest involving offers of work to federal or contractor employees.
The IG report says that, before taking the job, the contract employee was effectively already working for the government as a Deputy Program Director. In that role, they were able to draft a statement of work that was then awarded to their own employer, the report says. “This … provided the opportunity for the contract employee or similarly situated employees to manipulate contract taskings to the financial benefit of their own employer,” the IG says. Its report does not name the employer and employees involved, and does not disclose the amount of the contract.
Hiring problems at EERE appear to go beyond this instance. The IG inquiry found a “disturbing practice” whereby EERE officials would ask their contractors to hire specific people, sometimes with the intention of later hiring those people as government employees. That practice would presumably also violate the principle of open competition for federal jobs.
As of initial posting time, DOE had not responded to Nature’s request for its response to the report. The IG says that because of the significance of the Recovery Act, “the Department should take prompt action to ensure that the issues raised in our report are thoroughly reviewed and addressed.”
Update: DOE has responded to the report, saying that it is fully committed to ensuring a “fast, strong and merit-based hiring process that follows the letter and spirit of all federal regulations. Earlier this year, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy undertook a range of actions to implement reforms and improvements in the federal hiring process. We are confident that these reforms will ensure these issues are addressed moving forward,” says DOE spokeswoman Jen Stutsman.
Image: Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Cathy Zoi / U.S. Department of Energy