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A Federal Aviation Administration employee fired for tampering with a random drug test will get a second chance because the agency failed to follow Transportation Department screening procedures.

Keith Ivery, an airway transportation systems specialist at the FAA's Fort Worth Air Traffic Control Center in Texas, lost his job in December 2001 after one half of a urine sample he submitted for a drug test turned up traces of chromium, a known adulterating agent. Ivery denied that he attempted to alter his sample, and requested a test of the second half. But FAA officials rejected his request.

Ivery later filed a challenge at the Merit Systems Protection Board, and on May 10, the board ruled in his favor. Under Transportation Department rules, employees subjected to random drug tests have the right to request another screening using the second half of a split urine sample, if the first test comes up positive, either for drug use or adulteration, MSPB decided.

In denying Ivery a second test, the FAA argued that Transportation rules do not mandate follow-up tests when an initial screening detects the presence of an adulterating agent. But agency officials overlooked revisions to the Transportation Department's drug-testing guidelines, implemented in early 2001, MSPB noted. Those revisions require Transportation agencies to grant requests for retesting in cases where the initial screening detects adulteration.

Under the ruling, the FAA must bring Ivery on board again and grant him back pay.

Keith Ivery v. Department of Transportation, Merit Systems Protection Board (DA-0752-02-0424-I-1), May 10, 2004

Rumors Unraveled

A General Accounting Office investigation has absolved two officials in the Health and Human Services Department inspector general's office from allegations that they planned conferences as a front for vacations at the expense of taxpayers.

GAO looked into an anonymous tip accusing the acting deputy inspector general in HHS's Office of Evaluation and Inspections, one of five divisions within the HHS inspector general's office, of using a July 2003 training session at a Florida resort as an excuse to give her staff a vacation, and scheduling a meeting in New York so managers could attend a colleague's retirement party.

The tipster also claimed that the acting deputy IG for evaluations, with the help of a regional official, remodeled an office for personal comfort. But GAO investigators found scant evidence to support any of these allegations.

Contrary to claims, the Florida training session provided the acting deputy IG's staff with three and a half days of lessons on collecting and presenting evidence, as well as enhancing collaboration, GAO found.

The Florida training program was "tightly scheduled with meetings and classes," the watchdog agency reported. The agenda listed "nine general meetings and 28 breakout sessions, covering 15 different topics," and three managers' meetings, GAO said.

Appearances aside, officials based their decision to hold the training in Florida on amenities at the resort, GAO found. The hotel had enough meeting rooms to accommodate the training sessions and featured soundproof walls. In addition, the resort was located near the airport and offered the government per diem rate.

Similarly, GAO found that the New York managers' meeting served legitimate work purposes. Participants did attend a co-worker's retirement party one night, but paid out of their own pockets, the watchdog agency investigators said.

Officials also had good reason to renovate and refurnish the regional office, GAO found. That particular office needed a better space for storage of sensitive documents, and additional room to hold team meetings. Prior to the remodeling, office staff had to house papers related to ongoing investigations in a nonsecure basement area susceptible to flooding.

GAO's investigation confirms the results of an "extensive" internal inquiry into the anonymous tips and "clearly demonstrate[s] that the allegations were not based on fact and were without merit," said Dara Corrigan, acting principal deputy IG at HHS, in a letter responding to the watchdog agency's findings. "I hope that the final report will be issued publicly as soon as possible, and that its release will bring closure to this matter."

April 30 letter from Leslie Aronovitz, GAO director of Health Care--Program Administration and Integrity Issues, to Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Max Baucus, D-Mont.

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