Never underestimate the power of the media.  That’s the lesson from the series of articles OhMyGov! produced about a little-known Department of Defense (DoD) agency called DTRA (Defense Threat Reduction Agency) which highlighted poor decision-making and general discontent with DTRA’s leaders.  Thanks to those articles, DTRA’s Director has launched an investigation to determine the level and cause of the dissatisfaction and poor leadership within the 2,000-person agency.

In early March, 2008, OhMyGov! publicized the deliberate hiring of an Environmental, Safety, and Occupational Health Chief with no environmental experience along with growing discontent over the implementation and abuse of DoD’s pay for performance payroll system, the National Security Personnel System (NSPS).  A frenzy of activity followed, as the stories circulated around the entire agency, the internet, and the Defense Department community.  Light banter in our comment forum quickly turned to finger pointing and chastising as DTRA employees anonymously implicated by the story argued with other readers and DTRA personnel.  

Within two weeks, sources within the agency informed us that closed door meetings over how to handle the escalating “media situation” took place at DTRA between those implicated by the article. Undoubtedly at the top of the agenda was how to justify the appointment of an incumbent employee with zero environmental training to the agency’s top environmental slot - a position that requires oversight of chemical, biological, and explosives testing, among other programs.  

Eventually the articles made their way into the hands of DTRA’s Director and top General.  Unlike much of the material they read on a daily basis - which takes months (if ever) to reach them - the articles provided an uncensored, sobering perspective from those performing the actual work at DTRA.  Without fear of reprisal from intermediary members of the chain of command, DTRA employees spoke truth to power through OhMyGov!…and the results are promising.     

On March 31, 2008, DTRA’s Director James Tegnelia tasked all employees to complete an anonymous “employee climate survey.”  The survey aimed to capture the level of dissatisfaction with DTRA managers and senior leaders, assess just how toxic DTRA’s workplace has become for some, determine whether employees feel their interests are looked after and protected, and uncover whether employees believe they can report instances of fraud, waste, abuse, reprisal, or negligence without being punished for breaking the chain of command or implicating their supervisors.  

The survey period ended last week and OhMyGov! intends to review and report the results.  Unfortunately, previous attempts to use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain survey data from DTRA has proven difficult and we suspect the same will be true with the employee climate survey.  The agency failed to produce the source data of an NSPS survey within the 20-day post-request period as mandated by federal law.  We were informed that the NSPS data would be available 50 days after our FOIA request was submitted – a full month late.

Regardless, that DTRA has taken the initiative to listen to its employees and investigate the current problems serves as evidence of the effectiveness of whistleblowing.  Perhaps in the future, DTRA’s leaders will provide a better means for program managers and other mid-level personnel to air problems outside of their chain of command without fear of reprisal.  We also hope closer supervision of hiring decisions follows the survey to prevent favoritism and negligence in hiring decisions.  In the interim, we’re happy to be playing our part in keeping them honest.

For those interested, we were able to obtain a few screen shots of the latest employee climate survey and have included two below.  After each question, respondents were asked to mark their level of agreement with the survey statement by placing a check mark next to one of the following answer choices: strongly agree, agree, more agree than disagree, disagree, strongly disagree. 

Those of you in or outside of DTRA who didn't get a chance to complete the survey can email or post your comments or stories anonymously to OhMyGov!

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