Senators Criticize Special Counsel's Treatment of Employees

The head of the Office of Special Counsel, Scott J. Bloch , tried to put his best foot forward by beginning his Senate testimony yesterday with a quote from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar."

"There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, and must take the current when it serves or lose our ventures," Bloch read.

But it was too late.

By the time Bloch had turned to Shakespeare, the Republican chairman of the Senate federal workforce subcommittee and the ranking Democrat had made it clear that they thought Bloch could have done a better job of planning and handling the agency's recent reorganization, which has roiled the workforce at the small federal agency and helped fuel criticism from watchdog groups.

"As the agency that protects the merit system, OSC should set a sterling example of how to manage and treat federal employees," Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) said.

Added Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), who had sought the hearing, "The activities of OSC must be above reproach. To the detriment of employees and the merit principles, it appears that OSC is not meeting this goal."

Bloch defended his controversial tenure as the agency's leader, saying he had sought to strike a balance between improving agency operations and the interests of the agency's staff. "At worst," he said of the staff turmoil, "it was a difference of management style."

The Office of Special Counsel is supposed to be the place where federal employees go when they fear reprisals for blowing the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse and for protection from prohibited personnel practices. The office also enforces the Hatch Act, which limits the political activities of federal employees.

In January, after a year as head of the agency, Bloch ordered a dozen headquarters employees to take reassignments in the field and announced the opening of a field office in Detroit.

The reassignment orders drew the ire of Voinovich, who said Bloch had initially given the employees only 10 days to accept the transfer or face possible loss of their jobs. After a request from members of Congress, Bloch gave the employees more time to decide. By Voinovich's count, 10 of the 12 employees told to move left the agency rather than accept transfers.

"Mr. Bloch, I hope you understand that asking employees to make life-altering decisions in just 10 days may be construed as very insensitive," Voinovich said. "Even though OSC followed the letter of the law, I believe employees should have been provided a lot more time to make this decision."

Akaka said Bloch began his reorganization without notice to Congress or its appropriations committees, even though the agency spent $140,000 on a review that did not recommend such a change.