Whistle-blowers and DOE

Two and a half years of serving as President Clinton’s secretary of energy put Hazel O’Leary at the center of several controversial decisions. Testimony she gave recently for a suit brought by a Department of Energy whistle-blower, however, suggests that her most important work for the government may come after her official role.

As secretary from 1993 until her resignation in ’96, Ms. O’Leary became well-known for her forthright release of DOE information, her call for a nuclear test ban and her flamboyant style of operating the department. It was the last trait, which included her high-profile, questionable trips, and her spending more than $40,000 to maintain a list of “good” and “bad” journalists, that pushed her out of office.

But just as a management question, and not an energy policy, ended her career at DOE, her attempt to change the government culture of picking on whistle-blowers is likely to be her legacy there. She recently testified, on videotape, in the suit of a former DOE employee that there “has been a practice of repeated and long-term reprisal that visits in the place he or she is most vulnerable” by “questioning the employee’s competence.” She said whistle-blowers were referred to as “the crazies,” that they lost their security clearances they needed for their work and were pushed into lesser jobs. She said whistle-blowers told her of having their cars forced off the road and of having threats whispered to them as they left for home.

Congress not long ago heard testimony from former agents of the Internal Revenue Service, who described similar consequences for whistle-blowers there. The IRS is an obvious target for Congress because it has direct contact with so many Americans. But Congress should be no less concerned with the DOE, which has safety oversight responsibilites with the nation’s nuclear weapons program. Several of the whistle-blowers complaints at the DOE, in fact, are over radioactive contamination.

It’s not hard to see why whistle-blowers become targets: careers, programs, power and funding are at stake. To have an underling, an unknown functionary stand up and say that all is not well threatens little empires. What the former secretary has pointed out is that the mistreatment of whistle-blowers is not just a couple of unfortunate events but an unofficial practice at DOE, and perhaps elsewhere. That’s why those who come forward need protection.

Whatever her shortcomings as an administrator, Ms. O’Leary has set the agenda for an important issue that Congress should investigate further.