Investigation Confirms Interior Department Lacked Proper Justification for SES Reassignments

Written by SEA. Posted in Latest News

Washington, D.C. – The Senior Executives Association released the following statement in response to today’s release of the results of the Department of Interior Office of Inspector General’s investigation into the 2017 relocation of dozens of senior executives within DOI’s Executive Review Board (ERB), which prompted widespread accusations of potential discrimination on the bases of political affiliation, gender, career status, and race.

“Today’s report by the Department of Interior Office of Inspector General confirmed what SEA and many career executives at the agency have long suspected about the Department’s decision to reassign 35 senior executives in 2017,” said SEA President Bill Valdez. “The agency did not comply with legal requirements; ignored regulatory guidance; and had no documented plan, methodology, or real business case that justified their actions.”

Washington, D.C. – The Senior Executives Association released the following statement in response to today’s release of the results of the Department of Interior Office of Inspector General’s investigation into the 2017 relocation of dozens of senior executives within DOI’s Executive Review Board (ERB), which prompted widespread accusations of potential discrimination on the bases of political affiliation, gender, career status, and race.

“Today’s report by the Department of Interior Office of Inspector General confirmed what SEA and many career executives at the agency have long suspected about the Department’s decision to reassign 35 senior executives in 2017,” said SEA President Bill Valdez. “The agency did not comply with legal requirements; ignored regulatory guidance; and had no documented plan, methodology, or real business case that justified their actions.”

“The result was a slipshod justification for abuse of taxpayer resources, including the agency’s career executive talent assets,” Valdez continued. “Rules and regulations exist to prevent abuses, and in this case, the agency’s failure to follow the rules was detrimental to the mission of the Interior Department, wasted taxpayer dollars, and eroded the trust between senior federal leaders and their agencies.”

“The Department’s actions sowed the seeds of distrust and suspicion among many long-time dedicated agency career senior leaders, contrary to the authorizing statute for the Senior Executive Service (5 U.S. Code § 3131), which states the SES shall be administered, in part, to ‘provide for an executive system which is guided by the public interest and free from improper political interference,’ said Valdez. “The fact that the majority of affected Interior Department executives believed their reassignments derived from their prior duties or job focus areas, including on areas like climate change and conservation, as well as their proximity to retirement, should set off alarm bells for all taxpayers who benefit from our world-class apolitical civil service.”

“The Department’s after-the-fact improvements to its management of its Executive Resources Board (ERB), while welcome, are inadequate,” Valdez noted. “SEA will aggressively pursue legislative and regulatory remedies to ensure that such abuses of dedicated career civil servants will not occur again – at the Department of Interior or any other federal agency.”

Valdez concluded, “As the Administration seeks to advance and develop a 21st Century federal workforce consistent with the President’s Management Agenda – a goal which SEA strongly supports – it is our hope that this situation will provide an opportunity to strengthen the SES system and the federal civil service.”

SEA has previously drafted and proposed legislative and regulatory language to modernize Executive Resource Boards, and is engaging with the Administration and Capitol Hill to build support for these proposals.

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The Senior Executives Association (SEA) is a professional association representing Senior Executive Service members and other career Federal executives. Founded in 1980, SEA’s goals are to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity of the Federal government; to advance the professionalism and advocate the interests of career Federal executives; and to enhance public recognition of their contributions. For more information, visit www.seniorexecs.org.