Investigative Reports

The OIG investigated allegations that an enrolled member of a Native American tribe paid bribes or kickbacks to an elected member of a tribal business committee in exchange for preference on tribal construction contracts.We did not substantiate the allegations. A financial analysis revealed no evidence to suggest the enrolled member received construction contracts awarded by the tribe or that he owned or operated a construction company. We also found no evidence that the enrolled member paid bribes or kickbacks to tribal officials.

A supervisor based at Sunnyside Yard in New York City was terminated on February 18, 2021, following an administrative hearing. The former employee violated company policies by fraudulently claiming and accepting payment for regular pay, overtime pay, or both during hours when he was not working. In addition, company rail pass records showed that his pass was in use on days when he also claimed work hours, indicating that either he claimed labor hours while he was on personal travel or that he allowed others to use his rail pass privileges.

The OIG investigated an allegation of a financial conflict of interest involving a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) employee and a family member. The complaint alleged that the USGS employee assigned to a USGS unit at a State university submitted and managed multiple research work orders (RWOs) from the USGS from which the family member was paid as a co-principal. (RWOs are funding agreements between USGS and a cooperating university.)We substantiated that the USGS employee’s actions on the RWOs and the requisition regarding the family member constituted a financial conflict of interest. The employee submitted proposals for USGS RWOs at the State university where he was assigned, listing the family member as an employee in various roles under the agreements, and did so, in part, to ensure the family member’s salary of over $187,000. The family member also assisted the employee with the proposals, including developing budgets for payments.The U.S. Attorney’s office filed a civil false claims suit against the employee in lieu of criminal prosecution. The employee agreed to a settlement, which required the employee to pay $50,000. The employee’s family member is now employed at the State university with a salary paid by Federal and State grants.

We investigated allegations of improper conduct and actions by a GS-15 National Park Service (NPS) employee toward another NPS employee.The NPS employee said she felt uncomfortable when the GS-15 employee placed his hand on her lower back on multiple occasions, made inappropriate comments, and reached for her cell phone when it was in her lap during a taxi ride. The NPS employee said she did not express her discomfort to the GS-15 employee until he reached for her cell phone. The GS-15 employee said he did not specifically recall placing his hand on the NPS employee’s lower back to guide her through a door, although he said he had done that with both men and women in the past. The GS-15 employee told us he could not recall taking the cell phone from the junior employee’s lap in the taxi but that he may have in order to check the time because they were running late.We determined that the GS-15 employee’s conduct violated U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and NPS policies on preventing and eliminating harassing conduct (Personnel Bulletin No. 18-01 and NPS Director’s Order 16E, respectively) in that it was unwelcome, was based on sex, and could reasonably be considered to have adversely affected the work environment.

We investigated allegations that U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) or National Park Service (NPS) officials may have improperly influenced two hiring actions. The first hiring action resulted in the promotion of an NPS employee from a GS-9 to a GS-11 supervisory position in 2018, and the second action resulted in the promotion of the same employee to a GS-12 supervisory position in 2020. We also investigated an allegation that an NPS official who was related to the employee may have influenced both hiring actions.We did not find evidence substantiating the allegations of impropriety related to the 2018 hiring action. We also did not find evidence substantiating the allegation that the employee’s relative influenced either hiring action. Further, we did not find evidence that any other DOI or NPS management officials improperly influenced the promotion of the employee or that management instructed the human resources (HR) officials to grant an advantage to the employee. We did not investigate the employee’s actual eligibility or qualifications for a promotion.We did find, however, that NPS HR officials involved in the 2020 hiring action intentionally recommended a hiring process that granted an improper preference or advantage to the employee in violation of 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)(6) and that the HR officials’ actions did not follow merit system principles and the NPS Merit Promotion Plan. Specifically, HR officials advertised the position competitively but intentionally restricted it in a way that granted an advantage to the employee because doing so was perceived as easier and faster than promoting the employee noncompetitively based on an accretion-of-duties promotion, which was themethod that NPS management originally proposed.

A Senior Engineer was terminated on February 5, 2021, for violating company policies by downloading and viewing pornographic material from various websites and viewing videos that were stored on a USB storage device connected to his company-owned computer. In addition, the employee repeatedly used this computer for personal shopping, communicating via a personal email account, streaming sporting events, and other activities that were not work-related—both during the workday and in the evening outside of work hours.

The OIG investigated allegations that two Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officials inappropriately released BLM records without going through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) review process. The complaint also separately alleged that certain other BLM records could not be found and appeared to have been destroyed.We did not substantiate the allegations. We found that the records the BLM released were public and did not require a FOIA review. Moreover, following our request to the BLM for the allegedly missing records, BLM officials located and provided us copies of all relevant documents. Accordingly, we found no support for the claim that documents had been improperly destroyed.

The OIG investigated allegations that a GS-12 employee with the Office of the Secretary misused his Government purchase card to buy computers without authorization, made other improper purchases with his Government purchase card, and filed false time and attendance certifications.We did not find evidence that the employee made improper purchases or converted Government equipment to personal use, but we did find that he failed to properly record his time and attendance. We questioned 74 hours that the employee claimed as regular time when it appears he should have taken annual or sick leave.