In a videotaped deposition played in federal court Thursday, former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary said there "has been a practice of repeated and long-term reprisal" against Energy Department whistleblowers.
O'Leary, who served as Energy Secretary from 1993 to 1996, said whistleblower retaliation is an "agencywide" problem, citing employee complaints "at almost every site" the department operates.
In her testimony, a transcript of which was obtained by GovExec.com, O'Leary described a "long-standing folklore within the department that individuals who generally challenged the department on issues of health and safety and reliability were somehow kooky, a little crazed. This term, 'the crazies,' which people used to describe many of the individuals who I came to know as their individual jousts with the Department of Energy and our contractors became known to me, just seemed to me absurd."
O'Leary's deposition, which she taped last week from her office in Chevy Chase, Md., was sought by attorneys for Joseph Carson, a DOE employee in Oak Ridge, Tenn., who is suing the agency. Carson oversaw environmental and health matters at DOE's facility at Oak Ridge before being pushed into what his lawyers call "a do-nothing job." He claims his unpopular findings, which include allegations of safety violations, are the reason DOE removed him from his position and is now trying to transfer him to a desk job in Germantown, Md.
One of Carson's attorneys, Sarah Levitt, a lawyer with Project LAW, a Washington-based whistleblower rights group, said O'Leary's testimony shows how endemic reprisals are at DOE.
"It's very unusual for a Cabinet-level officer to offer this kind of testimony voluntarily," Levitt said. "It shows the depth of the problem."
In her deposition, O'Leary said she met with DOE and contractor employees who described reprisals after they came forward with allegations of misconduct. O'Leary heard stories of an employee being driven off the road and other employees having shotguns pointed at them while driving home at night. Employees told O'Leary their colleagues would intimidate them in the parking lot.
Security clearances were also revoked as a way to silence whistleblowers, O'Leary said.
"If you withdraw an individual's security clearance, you have withdrawn that individual's ability to work not only within the Department of Energy, but ... to work in other federal entities or work for contractors outside of the Department of Energy's enterprise and so, in essence, what you have taken away ... is that individual's livelihood," O'Leary said. "This was a systematic way to force reprisal on individuals who made themselves heard and didn't follow the so-called party line."
As secretary, O'Leary started a "zero tolerance" program against whistleblower attacks, which she said has started to make a difference. But she cautioned that the department must be more open to internal criticism. O'Leary said DOE is too quick to defend itself in court against charges of wrongdoing.
"We pay our contractor huge sums of money to go to court, defend the department and the government, and in point of fact, if we had spent that money to resolve the claim, we might have better spirit in the department," O'Leary said. "Our safety and health statistics surely could be improved, and the money would be spent earlier to solve the same problem that will ultimately be solved after we pay everybody's lawyers."
The Energy Department's Office of Employee Concerns, which O'Leary established, handles 500 complaints a year, according to a statement issued by William Lewis, director of the office. Lewis said 70 percent of cases are resolved within six months. Lewis said the National Academy of Public Administration is doing a study to figure out how many whistleblower cases initiated before 1992 remain unresolved.
"Whistleblowers are part of the Department of Energy's early warning system," Lewis said. "Secretary [Federico] Pena has made it clear that he expects Department of Energy managers to be committed to a work environment that allows free and open expression of safety concerns and one in which workers have no fear of reprisals or retaliation."
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