Whistleblower complaints are on the rise under the Obama administration–including at the TSA, the Washington Times reports.
In one case in Minnesota, assistant federal security directors Andrew Rhoades and Becky Roering alleged a number of security breaches had occurred at the airport, including mishandling of ammunition and improper PreCheck screening. From the Times’ report:
Ms. Roering said background checks of passengers applying for TSA “PreCheck” status — which allows them to pass through security lines more quickly with less-rigorous screening — were being improperly and inadequately conducted.
But Mr. Rhoades said that rather than correcting the reported security lapses, his supervisor accused him of leaking information to a local TV reporter. Then he was told he was being transferred to Tampa, a move he said would have resulted in losing custody of his child.
Mr. Rhoades said he knows of “dozens” of senior TSA employees who have been ordered to accept the “directed reassignments” in far-away job postings, in the management’s hope that the employees will simply quit instead.
Rhoades claims that the retaliatory actions came directly from the top TSA official at his airport.
“It was a total shock,” Rhoades told the Times. “They couldn’t get me on a performance issue, so they reassigned me to try to get me to resign.”
The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has since stepped in to investigate these complaints.
OSC told the Washington Times that they have seen an “unprecedented rise” in caseloads in recent years–they received 5,200 complaints in 2014. The VA filed 1,504 cases, the Defense Department 1,365, and the Department of Homeland Security 489. Overall, that’s 17 percent more than received in 2013, and 30 percent more than three years ago.
