A second head-to-head matchup engineered by Congress to see which government agency is best at investigating and resolving employment-related complaints on behalf of veterans gives the nod to the Labor Department.
In a report issued TuesdayNov. 25, the Government Accountability Office said the Labor Department bested the Office of Special Counsel OSC in most of the metrics examined as part of the three-year demonstration project, which officially ended in August — an outcome that clearly did not sit well with OSC officials.
This initiative follows an initial demonstration project that ran from early 2005 through the end of 2007.
The five metrics by which the two agencies were measured in the latest comparison are the same used by the Veterans Benefit Administration: case outcomes, customer satisfaction, timeliness, cost and capacity.
In terms of case outcomes, OSC provided relief to about 26 percent of veteran claimants, DOL about 20 percent. But DOL resolved 308 of 319 total cases — 97 percent — while OSC resolved 366 of 434, about 84 percent.
OSC officials argued that they had limited capacity to investigate and resolve claims during the first six months of the demonstration project because they were hiring new staff, negotiating a reimbursement agreement with DOL, and expanding its USERRA unit to handle demonstration project cases.
The GAO was not that impressed. "Agencies had about 10 months to prepare and assemble the resources required to implement the [demonstration] project," auditors noted.
On customer satisfaction, DOL respondents reported higher average satisfaction on every question than OSC respondents, some by "pronounced" margins, the GAO said.
Differences in scores in this area "were especially pronounced on questions relating to timeliness, access to staff and overall experience," the GAO said.
Some of the gaps were so large that the GAO did extra statistical analysis "to control for potential bias and ensure conclusions could be drawn from survey results." But even after controlling for variables like case outcome and timeliness, "differences in satisfaction between agencies persisted," the GAO said.
Timeliness was a clear DOL win, with the department taking an average 41 days to close cases, three times faster than OSC's average of 151 days. That difference apparently relates to OSC's policy of allowing open-ended case extensions, contrary to DOL policy.
Cost was another clear win for DOL, which spent an average of about $1,112 per case, compared to OSC's average of $3,810. "The relative difference in agencies' costs was affected by factors such as the number of hours dedicated to case investigations and pay levels, among others," the GAO noted.
Finally, the last metric, capacity, was a wash. Because the two agencies vary markedly in their staffing, training and information technology that supports investigation and resolution of USERRA claims, "GAO could not determine relative performance on agency capacity."
Although the overall metrics favor DOL, at least one USERRA expert said there are valid reasons for the government to consider letting OSC have the lead, at least on all federal-sector USERRA claims.
"I hope this report does not lead Congress to be pennywise and pound foolish," said Mathew Tully, a USERRA litigation pioneer who testified before the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs committees when they examined a previous USERRA demonstration project in 2007 and 2008.
"DOL may be able to process federal-sector USERRA complaints faster and cheaper, but OSC does a better job at actually delivering positive results for veterans," Tully said. "If Congress sincerely wants to help veterans, then it should take DOL out of the federal-sector USERRA complaint process and leave it all to OSC."
Labor Department officials generally concurred with the GAO report. OSC officials, however, had a decidedly different response, expressing "concerns about our characterization of performance data and conclusions," auditors said. "OSC expressed a concern that we ignored its efforts and successes in securing relief for veterans. OSC characterized the report as containing unreliable data, unsupportable conclusions, and a subjective assessment of relative performance."
Still, the GAO said, "Our report presents a fair, balanced, and objective portrayal of relative performance between OSC and DOL."
Since 2008, an average of 1,400 employment and reemployment claims have been filed each year. Over the past couple of years, about 14 percent of those 1,400 cases were filed against federal executive agencies.
