The Office for Civil Rights’ Complaint Dismissal Process

The objective of our audit was to determine whether the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) dismissed discrimination complaints in accordance with applicable policies and procedures. Specifically, we determined whether (1) complaints initially dismissed as a result of the March 2018 revision to OCR’s Case Processing Manual (CPM) have been reopened and reviewed and (2) the revised complaint dismissal process was conducted as provided in OCR’s November 2018 revision to the CPM. We were unable to determine whether complaints that were dismissed because of the March 2018 CPM revisions have been reopened and reviewed. We found that OCR needs to improve its tracking related to the reopening of complaints previously dismissed under Section 108(t) of the March 2018 CPM. We found no indication that complaints were not being dismissed in accordance with revisions made to the November 2018 CPM. We also found that complaints dismissed because of the March 2018 CPM revisions were generally dismissed in accordance with policy. However, we did find that some complaints dismissed under Section 108(t) did not always meet the criteria for dismissal, some complaints that did meet the criteria for a dismissal under Section 108(t) were not always dismissed, and case files did not always contain required documentation. In addition, we found that several of the complaints dismissed were already in an active resolution phase and/or an investigation had been completed.