IG: Zinke's Reassignment Of Native Americans And Climate Scientists Possibly Illegal

Source: Talking Points Memo




By Alice Ollstein | April 11, 2018 1:17 pm

The reassignment of dozens of senior career Interior Department (DOI) officials last year may have violated federal law, a damning internal report released Wednesday found. But investigators with the DOI Inspector General’s office said they were unable to say definitively because the agency failed to properly document their reasons for ousting the employees.

“Absent documentation, we could not independently determine whether or not the ERB complied with the Federal legal requirements,” the report, referring to a board of made up of Trump administration appointees at the agency. The report did determine, however, that this board did not properly consider the officials’ qualifications, time in office, or other valid criteria when selecting them to be forced out of their jobs.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has for several months been under fire for the reassignments, which Democrats say may have discriminated against department employees based on their political ideology or their race. Though the IG report does not mention it, a review by TPM found that a full third of those reassigned are Native American — a potential violation of both federal anti-discrimination laws and the agency’s own Indian Preference rules.

In the report, Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall describes a haphazard process used to select senior executive service (SES) officials for reassignment.

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/ig-zinkes-reassignment-of-native-americans-and-climate-scientists-possibly-illegal