The Department of Homeland Security's announcement last week that it is pursuing "significant reforms" in staff discipline followed "deeply concerning reports" of department personnel misconduct, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a news release.
The announced employee misconduct reforms followed an Oversight Committee investigation issued in October 2021 that revealed most Customs and Border Protection employees who posted inappropriately on a secret Facebook page had not been disciplined.
Mayorkas had said in a June 16 news release that when he was sworn in as DHS secretary in February 2021, he wanted to "champion our workforce and create a culture of excellence, openness and accountability, where misconduct is not tolerated."
Mayorkas announced his directive that DHS reform its employee misconduct discipline processes.
"The deeply concerning reports this spring underscored the need for urgent action to prevent and address harassment and other misconduct in the workplace," Mayorkas said in the release. "On April 7, 2022, I directed the department's general counsel to conduct a 45-day review of the employee misconduct discipline processes currently in effect across DHS and to recommend any necessary improvements."
Mayorkas' directive was based on the results of that review and the department has been ordered "to implement significant reforms to our employee misconduct discipline processes, including centralizing the decision-making process for disciplinary actions and overhauling agency policies regarding disciplinary penalties."
"Centralizing disciplinary processes will ensure that allegations of serious misconduct are handled by a dedicated group of well-trained individuals, who are not the employees' immediate supervisors, at each DHS component agency," Mayorkas added. "Reforming our policies regarding disciplinary penalties, including by providing more specific guidance, will promote accountability and ensure consequences are consistent and appropriate based on the severity of the misconduct.
"This important work is already under way and, as it proceeds through the coming months, DHS will continue to engage with the labor organizations representing our employees to ensure the continued protection of employees’ due process rights," the secretary said.
Reports surfaced in April about senior officials in DHS' Office of Inspector General who "directed staff members to remove damaging findings from investigative reports on domestic violence and sexual misconduct," the news release said.
The release also referred to a draft unpublished report about thousands of survey results in which employees said they suffered sexual harassment or misconduct between 2011 and 2018.
