July 22, 2019 —
Publicly released: July 25, 2019
The DoD Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) conducted this investigation in response to an allegation that on December 22, 2017, Willowheart Limited Liability Company (Willowheart) placed [REDACTED] (the Complainant), Contract Security Guard (CSG), Willowheart, on a temporary administrative leave of absence without pay, in reprisal for reporting violations of North Carolina state law, and for reporting abuse of authority to Inspectors General (IGs) and a contracting officer representative (COR).
We determined that the Complainant made three protected disclosures prior to Willowheart placing him on leave without pay, including two disclosures to IGs and one to a COR. We determined that Willowheart had knowledge of the Complainant’s protected disclosures and subsequently took one action against the Complainant by placing him on a temporary administrative leave of absence without pay.
We substantiated the allegation that Willowheart placed the Complainant on a temporary administrative leave of absence without pay in reprisal for the Complainant’s protected disclosures.