United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1999-01-29 monographic deposited born digital 41 p. GA 1.13:RCED-99-38 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-38 P0b002ee180374480 f:rc99038 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-38 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-38 RCED-99-38 Employment discrimination Dispute settlement Federal personnel administrative law Federal employees Civil rights law enforcement Federal agency reorganization Agricultural programs Fair employment programs Administrative remedies Food Stamp Program Letter Report RCED

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) efforts to process discrimination complaints, focusing on: (1) the timeliness of USDA's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) processing and closing of program and employment discrimination complaints; and (2) the reasons for delays in the processes.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) USDA's efforts to process discrimination complaints are falling short of its goals for closing its complaint backlog--one of the Secretary's top priorities; (2) the dates USDA established for closing its backlogs of program and employment discrimination complaints have been extended several times beyond its initial target date of July 1, 1997; (3) as of October 1, 1998, USDA had closed only 44 percent of its 1,088 backlog program cases and 64 percent of its 2,142 backlog employment cases; (4) its most recent goal was to close all remaining backlog cases by December 31, 1998--the fourth deadline it has set for backlog program cases and its third deadline for backlog employment cases; (5) in addition: (a) many of USDA's new program cases are missing interim milestones and are therefore not on track for being closed in a timely manner; and (b) the time spent processing its employment cases continues to far exceed federally mandated time frames; (6) for example, on October 1, 1998, 82 percent of the 397 employment cases being investigated by USDA had already exceeded the 180-day mandated time frame for investigations; (7) although USDA has provided additional resources to enhance its capabilities to address discrimination complaints, a number of problems are impeding its efforts to process complaints more expeditiously; (8) these problems include such long-standing issues as: (a) continuing management turnover and reorganizations in OCR; (b) inadequate staff and managerial expertise; (c) a lack of clear, up-to-date guidance and procedures; and (d) poor working relationships and communication within OCR and between the office and other USDA entities; (9) furthermore, the Department is not consistently using alternative dispute resolution techniques, such as mediation, to address workplace and other disputes before they become formal employment complaints; and (10) federal law and regulations encourage the use of alternative dispute resolution in resolving federal workplace and other disputes. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-38/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-38.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-38/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-38.pdf GAO/RCED-99-38 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-99-38 Letter Report GAO/RCED-99-38; U.S. Department of Agriculture: Problems Continue to Hinder the Timely Processing of Discrimination Complaints; Employment discrimination Dispute settlement Federal personnel administrative law Federal employees Civil rights law enforcement Federal agency reorganization Agricultural programs Fair employment programs Administrative remedies Food Stamp Program Title 42 Section 3601-3619 42 U.S.C. 3601-3619 Public Law 105-277