Investigation of Reprisal Allegations at FWS Region 5 Fisheries Program

We investigated allegations that an employee in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) Fisheries Program, Region 5, was reprised against by his supervisor for refusing to inflate a storm damage estimate for a fish hatchery. We found that the employee received detail and leadership opportunities before he got involved with the storm damage estimate, and the supervisor even offered him a supervisory position. Afterward, however, FWS managers denied the employee’s requests for four details and rejected his applications for four open positions. The supervisor acknowledged that he had shared concerns he had about the employee’s communication style with some of the managers in charge of hiring for these details and positions. This sequence of events creates the appearance of reprisal. 

 

We also found that the employee appeared to have been doing work that was outside his position description even though he had expressed concerns to his supervisor about his workload and assigned tasks. 

 

This is a summary of an investigative report that we issued to FWS for action.