GAO evaluates federal USERRA claims test
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Jul 21, 2007 15:19:08 EDT

Special Counsel Scott Bloch wants his office to take over investigation of all federal claims related to service members’ reemployment rights under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.

The Office of Special Counsel’s “timely resolution of cases, the correctness of its legal determinations, and the beneficial results it obtained for service members prove that OSC is well-suited for investigating all federal sector USERRA claims,” Bloch wrote in a letter to the Government Accountability Office.

The letter was in response to the GAO’s evaluation of an ongoing demonstration project in which half of USERRA claims go directly to OSC, rather than through the Labor Department.

These federal USERRA claims comprise only about 10 percent of the total number of USERRA claims that the Labor Department receives each year, Bloch noted. If OSC is given investigative authority for all federal USERRA claims, he wrote, “I firmly believe [the Labor Department] will be able to redirect its full investigative capabilities and resources to its nonfederal-sector claims.”

GAO said the Labor Department needs to develop an internal review process for all unresolved claims before they are closed and claimants are notified. The department should also establish controls to ensure data entered into its database is accurate, auditors said.

The GAO’s evaluation found some problems with the processes at both the Labor Department and OSC. Labor officials used inaccurate data in their agency’s annual report to Congress, which could adversely affect lawmakers’ ability to determine how well federal USERRA claims are processed, and whether changes are needed, auditors said in their July 20 report.

Although Labor recorded 202 claims as being opened, GAO found some were duplicated, reopened or transferred, and said the number of unique claims was actually 166 in the demonstration project between Feb. 8, 2005 and Sept. 30, 2006. GAO auditors estimated the Labor Department’s average processing time ranged from 53 to 86 days.

During that time, OSC received 269 claims and took an average of 115 days to process the claims. The demonstration project, which is ongoing, ends Sept. 30.

On the surface, those figures would seem to undercut Bloch’s assertion that the OSC can handle these cases more efficiently. But Bloch said the GAO report does not address differences in the end results for service members in cases handled by OSC and Labor, and the time it takes to get those results.

“The charts used in your report are accurate insofar as they show a service member enters the process and exits it at a certain point, but they do not accurately reflect the level of complexity a service member encounters” when going through a Labor Department investigation, Bloch said.

“Thus the contrast between OSC’s one-stop shopping simplicity and the relative complexity and delay of a {Labor Department] investigation that may bounce around between regional offices” is lost, he said.

Bloch said his USERRA unit “achieves a 25 percent corrective action rate for service members in about half the time necessary for [the Labor Department] to complete an investigation.”

Charles Ciccollela, assistant secretary of labor for veteran’s employment and training, said his office is implementing a new quality-assurance review process for all USERRA cases that will require a higher-level review before a claimant is notified of the determinations and before cases are closed, which is something recommended by GAO auditors.

And USERRA investigators have received new instructions on notifying claimants of their right to have their claims referred to the Office of Special Counsel, or to take their case directly to the Merit Systems Protection Board if the case is not resolved by the Labor Department.

Ellie