Skip to main content

No FEAR Act: Methods the Justice Department Says It Could Use to Account for Its Per-Case Costs Under the Act

GAO-04-863 Published: Jul 21, 2004. Publicly Released: Jul 22, 2004.
Jump To:
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

Allegations of violations of employment discrimination and whistleblower protection laws against federal agencies can end up in federal court, at which point Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys generally take over representation of the agency. Attorneys within Justice's Civil Division and U.S. Attorneys Offices generally handle this type of litigation. The Notifications and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No FEAR Act) requires agencies to repay the Department of the Treasury's Judgment Fund for discrimination and whistleblower protection settlements and judgments paid on their behalf. While the No FEAR Act does not require agencies to reimburse DOJ for costs incurred in defending them in cases covered under the Act, it does require GAO to review how DOJ could ascertain the cost of representing agencies in each case and what the burden of performing this accounting would be. Based on this requirement, our report provides information on (1) the methods DOJ says it could use to account for the personnel and non-personnel costs that it incurs in handling cases covered under No FEAR on a per-case basis and how soon the Department expects it would be able to do so, and (2) how costly DOJ expects it would be to account for each case. We make no recommendations in this report.

Full Report

Office of Public Affairs

Topics

Cost accountingCourt costsEmployment discriminationFederal agenciesFinancial management systemsIntergovernmental fiscal relationsInvestigations into federal agenciesLabor costsLawyersLitigationReimbursements to governmentWhistleblowers