Scathing Inspector General Report on Dept. of Energy division Bonneville Power reveals employees who cooperated with IG investigation were fired, suspended, or otherwise sanctioned

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7/24/13, "Darrell Issa: Energy Department Whistleblowers Gagged," Washington Free Beacon, Lachlan Markay

"Energy Department officials prohibited subordinates from speaking with congressional investigators about their probe into illicit hiring practices and related whistleblower retaliation allegations, according to the lead investigator.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, revealed in a letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon that the deputy secretary of energy issued the gag order following a scathing inspector general report last week.

The report revealed that the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a division of the Department of Energy (DOE), had violated DOE hiring guidelines in ways that disadvantaged military veterans.

BPA employees who cooperated with the IG’s investigation, the report found, were fired, suspended, or otherwise sanctioned.

Issa revealed in a Wednesday, July 17, letter that Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman “verbally instructed Elliot Mainzer, the individual [Poneman] chose to serve as acting administrator of BPA, that no BPA employees were to talk with anyone regarding these allegations, including congressional investigators.”

Issa suggested that such a gag order could be illegal. “Obstructing a congressional investigation is a crime,” he noted. “Additionally, denying or interfering with employees’ rights to furnish information to Congress is against the law.”...

Oversight Committee spokesman Ali Ahmad told the Oregonian that a senior BPA official had informed the committee of Poneman’s gag order.

Issa requested a response from Poneman by noon on Wednesday. The committee could not confirm whether it had received a response by press time.

“BPA employees have the right to talk with Congress and to provide Congress information free from interference by the Department of Energy,” he wrote. “These employees also have a right to be free from fear of retaliation for sharing information with Congress.”

A BPA spokesman referred questions to DOE’s press office, which did not respond to a request for comment." via Tom Nelson

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7/22/13, "Bonneville Power Administration employees told to speak out about concerns without fear of retaliation," oregonlive.com, Ted Sickinger

"The acting chief of Bonneville Power Administration told the 3,000 employees of the federal power marketing agency on Friday that they should feel free to "speak out, voice any concerns, or lodge complaints with any authoritative body as they see fit, without fear of retaliation."

The email came four days after two of BPA's top executives were escorted out of the agency's Lloyd District headquarters amid complaints that managers had retaliated against whisteblowers during an investigation of BPA's hiring practices. Mainzer was appointed acting administrator last week, though some members of Congress are concerned that BPA and its governing agency, the U.S. Department of Energy, are still trying to muzzle employees. 

Rep. Darrell Issa, R- Calif. and chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wrote Deputy U.S. Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman last week to express those concerns: "Today, I learned that on Monday, you verbally instructed Elliot Mainzer, the individual you chose to serve as acting administrator of the BPA, that no BPA employee were to talk with anyone concerning these allegations, including congressional investigators."  

Ali Ahmad, a spokesman for the House Oversight Committee, said it learned about the alleged muzzling from a senior BPA official who has been with the organization for a number of years. The letter to Poneman was written to make sure all BPA employees were made aware of their right to communicate directly and independently with Congress.

The Energy Department would not answer direct questions or confirm any instructions had been given to Mainzer in the first place. It still has not commented on the status of BPA Administrator Bill Drummond and chief Operating Officer Anita Decker, who were put in administrative limbo last week as the U.S. DOE's Office of Inspector General issued a management alert and sent a team to Portland to conduct a management review of the agency. 

Indeed, the BPA's own communications arm appears to be the subject of a gag order. Its staff refer all questions on the investigation and review to the DOE, whose own communications staff will not answer specific questions. The agency did, however, forward the email that Mainzer sent to BPA staff on Friday morning.

In the email, Mainzer acknowledged that the management alert came on the heels of an extensive investigation by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and a review by the DOE Office of Human Capital that uncovered widespread errors and violations of merit system rules and civil service laws in BPA's recruiting and promotion activities. Those violations disadvantaged some applicants including veterans, and the review also detailed allegations of retaliation against employees who had raised concerns about the hiring practices....

Earlier this month, BPA was ordered to provide the Energy Department with all documentation associated with proposed "adverse actions" against two employees in BPA's human capital office. The DOE subsequently suspended BPA's authority to take any adverse actions when it learned the agency was on the verge of proposing the removal of a third human capital employee, and instruct anyone on administrative leave due to such an adverse action to return to work."

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 BPA.gov, "About Us"

"The Bonneville Power Administration is a federal nonprofit agency based in the Pacific Northwest. Although BPA is part of the U.S. Department of Energy, it is self-funding and covers its costs by selling its products and services. BPA markets wholesale electrical power from 31 federal hydro projects in the Columbia River Basin, one nonfederal nuclear plant and several other small nonfederal power plants. The dams are operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation. About one-third of the electric power used in the Northwest comes from BPA."...
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