United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2007-02-16 monographic deposited born digital 27 p. GA 1.13:GAO-07-318R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-318R P0b002ee18038145f f:d07318r DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-318R machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-318R GAO-07-318R Data collection Data integrity Employment discrimination Federal employees Internal controls Program abuses Safeguards Systems development life cycle Whistleblowers Corrective action Merit systems Correspondence A66008 The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is charged with safeguarding the merit system by protecting federal employees and applicants for employment from prohibited personnel practices, such as discrimination, nepotism, and retaliation against whistleblowing. An individual who feels that a prohibited personnel practice has occurred may file a claim with OSC, which OSC then investigates and on which it may seek corrective or disciplinary action through negotiation with agencies or prosecution of claims before the Merit Systems Protection Board. In addition, federal employees, former federal employees, and applicants for federal employment may also disclose to OSC alleged wrongdoing by federal employees (termed whistleblower disclosures), including violations of law, gross mismanagement, or abuse of authority. OSC also provides advisory opinions and enforces Hatch Act restrictions on the political activities of individuals employed by the federal and District of Columbia governments as well as certain state and local government employees in connection with programs financed by federal funds. OSC also prosecutes claims before the Merit Systems Protection Board on behalf of federal employees, former federal employees, and applicants for federal employment under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA), which protects the employment and reemployment rights of federal and nonfederal employees who leave their employment to perform military service and prohibits discrimination against individuals because of their military service. OSC reports annually to Congress on the number of all types of cases it receives, processes, and closes as well as the disposition of those cases. cases. In the course of two prior reviews at OSC, we found discrepancies in the data generated by OSC's case tracking system--OSC 2000--in the number of cases pending at the beginning of a fiscal year as well as cases received and closed during the year. This report responds to Congress's concerns about the possibility that the data in OSC 2000 may be unreliable and that in turn OSC data on caseloads may be in error. As discussed, our objectives were to (1) identify what actions OSC has taken to help ensure the reliability of its case tracking system and related data and (2) determine whether OSC has corrected the types of data discrepancies we identified during previous work. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-318R/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-318R.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-318R/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-318R.pdf GAO-07-318R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-318R Correspondence GAO-07-318R; Office of Special Counsel Needs to Follow Structured Life Cycle Management Practices for Its Case Tracking System; Data collection Data integrity Employment discrimination Federal employees Internal controls Program abuses Safeguards Systems development life cycle Whistleblowers Corrective action Merit systems Volume 108 Page 3149 108 Stat. 3149