Watchdog finds unfair hiring practices in internship program

An Environmental Protection Agency region engaged in a prohibited personnel practice by giving several candidates for Federal Career Intern Program vacancies improper advantages during the hiring process, according to a new watchdog report that a union says supports its long-standing criticisms of the program.

In response to allegations reported to a hotline, the EPA inspector general found Region 9 officials favored four candidates for the FCIP spots, partly by offering them paid travel to a job fair before announcing the event or the vacancies publicly.

Officials also arranged for the candidates to participate in interviews and meetings during the job fair; other attendees did not benefit from those opportunities. EPA hired three of the four individuals for the vacancies and subsequently brought on the fourth for another opening. Agencies have more leeway in recruiting career interns than they do during the traditional hiring process, but still must follow merit system principles, the IG noted.

"We concluded that Region 9 used a legitimate job fair recruitment method to mask hiring persons favored by management," the report stated. "Even if a desired candidate is exceptionally qualified, manipulation of the hiring system is a prohibited personnel practice when done to help or harm a particular candidate."

The inspector general recommended the region take appropriate administrative actions against the officials who engaged in the prohibited practices. But agency officials disagreed with the inspector general's findings and recommendation.

"Contrary to the draft OIG report, the agency did not give 'preferential treatment' to the four candidates who were ultimately hired after a July 28, 2009, job fair," wrote Craig Hooks, assistant administrator of the EPA Office of Administration and Resources Management, and Jared Blumenfeld, Region 9 administrator, in an official response to the report. "A more comprehensive set of interviews would have shown that these candidates were part of an initial pool of 200. These candidates had been recruited, screened, interviewed several times and reference-checked, following merit system principles, prior to their attendance at the job fair."

The inspector general said the matter will be referred to the Office of Special Counsel.

The National Treasury Employees Union said the IG findings provided a "textbook example" of what is wrong with FCIP.

"It gives agencies such unfettered discretion in recruiting that it opens the door to abuse and manipulation of the federal hiring process, thus undercutting merit-based principles," NTEU President Colleen Kelley said. "That is exactly what occurred in this instance."

NTEU has a lawsuit against the Office of Personnel Management pending in federal court, challenging the legality of the regulations implementing FCIP.

"FCIP has been moved far beyond its original and limited purpose of providing structured, two-year internships," Kelley said. "It is now being used as the hiring authority of choice by a number of agencies, including Customs and Border Protection, the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation."

Kelley, along with OPM Deputy Director Christine Griffin and other agency, labor and nonprofit leaders will testify Thursday during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee hearing on Developing Federal Employees and Supervisors: Mentoring, Internships, and Training in the Federal Government.