What We Did:
We completed an investigation into allegations that a U.S. Army Colonel and a DoD civilian employee relieved the Complainant (a U.S. Army Reserve Colonel) from Reserve support duties at the U.S. Army War College’s Senior Leader Development Seminar in reprisal for making protected communications to Members of Congress.
What We Found:
The DoD OIG found that the Complainant had made protected communications to Members of Congress. The investigation found that the DoD civilian employee reprised against the Complainant when they unduly influenced the Colonel to release the Complainant from their support duties at the seminar. We found that the civilian employee knew of the Complainant’s protected communications to Congress when recommending the Complainant be removed from support duties and would not have made the recommendation absent the communications. We found that the U.S. Army Colonel’s decision to release the Complainant was not reprisal as she was not aware of the Complainant’s protect communications and would not have released the Complainant from their duties absent the DoD civilian employee’s recommendation.
What We Recommend:
We recommend that the Secretary of the Army consider appropriate action to remedy the fact that the Complainant was improperly removed from performing Reserve support duties at the Senior Leader Development Seminar and consider remedial action with regard to the DoD civilian employee.