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An internal Office of Special Counsel document reveals snags in staffing its new Detroit office and states that the agency is struggling to maintain its workload in the wake of a controversy that resulted in the firing of several employees who refused to relocate.

The problems were detailed in minutes from a Feb. 9 Employee Advisory Committee meeting with Special Counsel Scott Bloch and eight other employees. The meeting notes were obtained by three nonprofit whistleblower protection groups -- Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the Project on Government Oversight and the Government Accountability Project -- and state that "the problem of how to staff the [Detroit] office remains," because an employee who had agreed to move to that location, took another job.

According to the document, the Immediate Office of the Special Counsel is looking at other ways to handle cases now. "One consideration is to try to get as many cases closed as possible prior to the employee's departure," a method similar to the one the agency used in the past to close cases quickly.

The agency also will be hiring interns for the summer who will be able to assist with getting cases closed.

Jeff Ruch, PEER's executive director, said it's shocking that the agency would consider using interns to close cases. "They've already closed about 1,000 cases and they're in some sort of drive to close the rest," he said.

OSC's spokeswomen, Cathy Deeds, would not comment on the document, but did say it wasn't unusual for a law office to use interns to help with its workload. She said the agency's 10 summer interns often give files preliminary reviews and make initial phone calls to the complainant.

"[The interns] were not authorized to close cases, but they did work and were fully supervised," Deeds said. "We've always talked about interns, but we didn't get into the specifics of what they do because it's so obvious."

Deeds would not comment on the details of the Detroit office, but did say, "We're moving forward with the mission of the agency." She said the agency would cooperate with the investigation by the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency and hopes it will put the allegations to rest.

A complaint filed by some career OSC workers alleges that Bloch retaliated against employees who complained about office policies and forced senior career staff in Washington to relocate to the new office in Detroit.

According to Anthony Vergnetti, a lawyer for the complainants, the last day for the workers who refused reassignment is March 18. Vergnetti said he tried to negotiate with OSC to give the workers more time before they had to leave, but they failed to reach an agreement that satisfied all parties.

A letter from four members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee - Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., George Voinovich, R-Ohio, and Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii - states that they are concerned that "efforts to improve OSC's operations may actually hinder its mission."

Voinovich, chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia, plans to hold a hearing focusing on OSC later this year.

Free Food

The National Institutes of Health cannot charge conference attendees for food and drinks served during an upcoming event, the Government Accountability Office decided last week.

The nine-page decision by GAO General Counsel Anthony H. Gamboa states that NIH can pay for reasonable costs like meals and light refreshments at a Parkinson's disease conference at a hotel near NIH's headquarters in Bethesda, Md.

But, the decision stipulates, an agency cannot augment its appropriations from Congress with revenue from sources outside the government. Since meals and refreshments are similar to other conference costs like programs, videos and signage, then food should be considered a reasonable expense.

For an agency hosting a conference to be able to provide food, the cost of the food must be considered incidental, the food must help ensure full participation and "substantial functions" at the conference must occur separately from the events where food is served, according to GAO.

Because the NIH conference fulfilled those criteria, organizers will be able to serve food, but cannot include the cost of the food in the conference registration fee. To comply with the decision, NIH is supposed to develop a policy specifying the types of conferences in which they serve food.

GAO made the decision based on the fact agencies are allowed to pay for the cost of meals and refreshments during the training of its workers, or pay an employee for his or her food while attending a conference.

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