DOJ Unable to Timely Issue Certain EEO Decisions. Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 1213(g)(2), the Special Counsel transmitted to the Attorney General a whistleblower disclosure that employees at the Department of Justice (DOJ), Civil Rights Division, Complaint Adjudication Office (CAO), Washington D.C., engaged in actions that may constitute a violation of law, rule, or regulation and gross mismanagement. The whistleblower alleged that the CAO failed to timely issue Final Agency Decisions (FAD) requested by Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complainants within 60 days, as required by 29 C.F.R. § 1614.110(b).
Officials in the Civil Rights Division conducted the review. The report found that FADs requested by DOJ EEO complainants pursuant to 29 C.F.R. § 1614.110(b) were issued, on average, in 547.6 days in 2023 and 682.5 days in 2024 (through September 14, 2024). The report attributed these delays to the significant increase in EEO complaints received by CAO, nearly doubling from 2013 to 2023. The report noted that DOJ has taken a number of steps in recent years to improve its ability to timely issue FADs, including increasing the number of attorneys in the CAO by 175 percent from 2020 to 2024, offering one-year attorney details in the CAO to assist with backlog, providing more robust training and mentoring for CAO attorneys, developing guidance for CAO attorneys on common legal issues, implementing a case tracking system, streamlining processes to “fast-track” relatively simple cases, and utilizing productivity standards for CAO attorneys. In addition, the report indicated that DOJ is planning to modify the acknowledgement letter sent to EEO complainants to alert them of anticipated delays in issuing FADs requested pursuant to 29 C.F.R. § 1614.110(b).
Based on the agency’s review and proposed corrective action, OSC is closing this matter.