Whistleblower Protection

The GSA Office of Inspector General provides Whistleblower Protection guidance for employees on its web page. This includes options for making a whistleblower disclosure, filing a complaint or appeal about whistleblower retaliation, contacting the Whistleblower Protection Ombudsman, and a link to additional information on the Office of Special Counsel website. The GSA Office of Human Resources Management provides information to new employees, current employees and supervisors on merit system principles, prohibited personnel practices and on the Whistleblower Protection Act. As part of its continual education and outreach efforts, it provides information to employees during new employees’ orientation, through learning series on managing performance appraisals, through supervisor/manager training on merit systems principles and prohibited personnel practices and through courses on GSA’s On-Line University.

Employees can access the Merit System Principles and Prohibited Personnel Practices on GSA’s intranet. GSA has also met the requirements of OSC’s 2302(c) Certification Program: Informational Posters are posted at the front elevators and throughout GSA buildings. They address Whistleblower protections, retaliation, and Prohibited Personnel Practices, respectively. New Employee Orientation packages include documents about Prohibited Personnel Policies and the rights of employees under the Whistleblower Protection Act. No Fear Act Training through GSA’s Online University is mandatory for all current employees and managers. This course covers the rights and remedies available to federal GSA Open Government Plan 2014-2016 10 employees under both antidiscrimination laws and whistleblower protection laws. New employees must take this training within 90-days of being hired. After that, training is required every two years for all employees.