Case Reports for 2018
Docket Number: SF-1221-14-0338-W-2
Case Number: 16-73427
Issuance Date: February 26, 2018
The Petitioner was a Supervisory Engineering Technician at a Department of Army California military base. He filed a complaint with the Department of Defense Inspector General (IG) on October 2012 alleging that he was the subject of an investigation during which agency employees made false statements about him and that agency managers failed to address his concerns about nepotism within the agency. He raised his concerns about nepotism again during a meeting in July 2013. In August 2013, he was terminated and subsequently barred from the military base for 180 days. The Petitioner filed a complaint in September 2013 with the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) alleging that the agency terminated him and barred him from the base as a result of his protected activity when he filed his original complaint with the IG. Following that, he filed an appeal in the form of an Individual Right of Action (IRA) with the Board. After the Petitioner’s hearing, The Administrative Judge denied his request for corrective action and found that he had exhausted his remedies with OSC. However, the AJ found that the Petitioner had failed to exhaust his July 2013 disclosure regarding nepotism and that the Board lacked jurisdiction over the decision to bar him from the military base. The AJ also found that the Petitioner had failed to establish that his IG complaint was a contributing factor to his termination. The Petitioner then filed a petition for review and the Board affirmed the AJ’s decision.
Attorney Kirk J. Angel did not represent the above Petitioner. However, he does represent civilian employees of the U.S. Department of the Army for cases heard by the MSPB.