Former Homeland Security Watchdog Officials Fostered ‘Divisiveness, Disorder and Dissension,’ Report Finds

Former Homeland Security Watchdog Officials Fostered ‘Divisiveness, Disorder and Dissension,’ Report Finds

A former senior official at the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general office, along with two other high-ranking employees within the office, engaged in systematic unprofessional and divisive behavior that hindered the office’s ability to achieve its mission, according to a recent external investigation. 


On May 4, 2020, the DHS IG engaged the international law firm Wilmer Hale to review the conduct of three senior IG office employees. It completed a 92-page report on December 14, 2020, and Government Executive received a redacted version through the Freedom of Information Act. Wilmer Hale looked at 88 allegations, conducted 70 interviews and reviewed over 42,000 documents for its investigation that spanned late 2017 to 2020. 


The individual at the center of the investigation, with the assistance of the two others, “planted and then cultivated seeds of divisiveness, disorder and dissension to the detriment” of the agency, said the report. “The agency was beset by employees’ associations of misconduct and retaliation, frequent internal investigations of [office of inspector general] personnel, and complaints and counter-complaints filed with the integrity committee of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, the Office of Special Counsel and Congress.”


A DHS IG official told Government Executive that the individuals in the report no longer work for the office. 


Current and former IG employees told Wilmer Hale there was a “pattern of mistreatment” by two of the top officials and the third, to a lesser degree, “to any employees they thought were in the way of their personal goals and agenda.” The employees “described a challenging working environment where employees often faced verbal abuse and threats of poor performance evaluations,” said the report. 


The main employee, with the help of the others, “publicl ..

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