State Dept. Probing Reassignment Of Career Officials To Menial Jobs
Source: Talking Points Memo
By Alice Ollstein | May 17, 2018 4:23 pm
The State Department Inspector General is reviewing claims that senior career officials who worked on Obama administration priorities like refugee resettlement and closing the Guantanamo Bay prison were temporarily reassigned to menial work processing Freedom of Information Act requests, the IG’s office confirmed to TPM on Thursday.
In January, Reps. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Elijah Cummings (D-MD) called for an investigation after whistleblowers at the State Department shared what the lawmakers called “credible allegations that the State Department has required high-level career civil servants, with distinguished records serving administrations of both parties, to move to performing tasks outside of their area of substantive expertise.”
Cummings and Engel, who serve as the top Democrats on the House Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees respectively, told the IG that they feared the moves “may constitute impermissible abuse and retaliation” against federal workers. Later in January, CNN reported that the IG was “conducting preliminary work…to assess the allegations.”
On Thursday, communications director Sarah Breen at the State’s Inspector General’s office told TPM: “The review requested by Congressmen Engel and Cummings is ongoing.”
Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/state-dept-probing-reassignment-of-career-officials-to-menial-jobs
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