Wow, that’s some ‘attention step!’ When Brian Haaser talks to groups of new USDA employees, he’ll often have an empty chair on stage with him. He’ll point to the chair and say “That employee is missing from our group today. It’s because the employee is in jail, convicted of criminal activity at the Department, such as embezzlement or accepting a bribe.”

      And that pretty much rivets the attention of the employee audience to the rests of his remarks.

      Haaser, special agent-in-charge of the Program Investigations Division under Investigations in the Office of Inspector General, is one of several OIG special agents and auditors who participate in orientation briefings for new USDA employees at headquarters and field offices around the country. OIG’s emphasis in those orientations is to warn new USDA employees about such acts in the workplace as employee misconduct, conflict of interest, mismanagement or waste of USDA funds, and workplace violence, as well as such acts of criminal activity at their USDA office as bribery, smuggling, theft, fraud, embezzlement, and endangerment to public health or safety.

      “We have two priorities in giving these presentations,” Haaser explained. “The first is that we want employees to help us--and help each other--maintain the integrity of the USDA work force.” He underscored that the message he wants to send is that USDA employees are to be fair and impartial in the workplace--and, as such, they are to be protected from false allegations, whether emanating from within the Department or from the public.

      “Second,” he noted, “we want employees to help us--and help each other--ensure the safety and security of our fellow employees by, for instance, giving them guidance on how to resist attempts at bribery or an assault against them in the workplace.”

      Those OIG presentations are taking on an even greater importance in light of some statistical information which OIG specialists gleaned earlier this year. “This past January,” recounted OIG special agent Iris Hall, “we asked our liaison contacts in each agency to determine how many employees in each agency are in jobs in which they interact with the public.”

      “Based on that search,” advised OIG special agent Lee Huttenbach, “we concluded that an estimated 55,000 USDA employees are in positions which involve interacting with the public--which may make them more vulnerable to threats and/or assaults.”

      “So those stats confirmed for us the value in giving our presentations, to help protect our employees,” concluded OIG special agent Beth Marik.

      As a comparison, according to Office of Human Resources Management computer specialist Ed McLaughlin, as of April 2 USDA’s work force consisted of 94,400 federal employees--full- time, part-time, and temporary.

Ernie Hayashi, director of the Farm and Foreign Agricultural Division under Audit in OIG, said that as part of the presentations OIG auditors describe their distinct role and how they can help employees. “We also alert employees to their rights under whistleblower protection procedures and Merit Systems Protection Board procedures,” he noted.

Dave Dixon, special agent-in-charge of OIG’s Western Region Office in San Francisco, said that he participated in several presentations, since June 2000, that were tailored to Food Safety and Inspection Service meat and poultry inspectors and other agency employees in California, as part of similar presentations to FSIS employees around the country.

      According to FSIS program analyst John Campbell, who coordinates that agency’s 'Workplace Violence Prevention and Response’ program, this was done in the aftermath of the killing of FSIS meat inspectors Tom Quadros and Jeannie Hillery and California state inspector Bill Shaline at a sausage factory in San Leandro, Calif., on June 21, 2000. The owner of that factory has been accused of those killings and is currently awaiting trial in a California state court.

      “What we specifically wanted to accomplish in those presentations was to advise our fellow employees that being threatened while on the job is unacceptable, and that someone in OIG is there to follow up,” Dixon advised. “Every week, out here in the Western Region, we get at least one phone call from a USDA employee that they’ve been threatened while trying to do their job.”

      “So we’ll intercede in a variety of ways--but the key in our presentations is to let employees know that, if they contact us, we’re there to help.”

      Karen Ellis, special agent-in-charge of OIG’s Northeast Region Office in New York City, said that during 2000 OIG gave several presentations to Agricultural Marketing Service agricultural commodity graders around the country, in the aftermath of the indictment and arrest of nine AMS graders on charges of bribery and fraudulent grading at private sector terminal markets in Hunts Point, N.Y., in October 1999. “We provided guidance to AMS employees on how to counter attempts at bribery,” she explained.

      “For instance,” Ellis advised, “one tip we stressed--after we simply but firmly pointed out that the first piece of guidance is 'Do Not Take A Bribe’--is to cooperate with OIG investigators, following your report to OIG of an attempted bribe.”

      “This will help us try to prevent corrupt individuals from 'shopping’ for another employee whose personal or financial situation may make him or her more vulnerable to bribery attempts.”

      “Our presentations on this tied in with the reform measures that AMS instituted at terminal markets around the country, following the incidents at Hunts Point,” Ellis said.

      According to OIG special agent Conrad Raines, OIG presenters at the sessions with employees distribute handouts and laminated cards with tips for dealing with bribery attempts as well as threats and/or assaults against USDA employees. The handouts include such items as the number for OIG’s toll-free hotline to report fraud, waste, and abuse (800-424-9121), its TTY number (202-690-1202), and its 24-hour number to report bribery, threats, or assaults (202-720-7257).

      To emphasize the value of giving OIG specialists a 'heads-up’ by using those numbers, Lynn Odenbach, assistant special agent-in- charge of OIG’s Midwest Region Office in Chicago, related a situation which took place in Ottowa, Ill., in early March. Rural Development staffers had planned a meeting with a local rural housing borrower. But that borrower had issued a threat against RD employees in that local USDA office, the day before the meeting was scheduled to take place.

      “An employee contacted us in advance of that meeting, so we contacted the local sheriff, then the sheriff literally intersected the man on his way to the meeting and advised him that his 'violent plans’ were 'not appropriate,’ and the meeting subsequently took place without incident,” she advised.

      “Actually,” Odenbach added, “one downside of that whole situation is that we wish we’d been contacted sooner, so that our intervention could have occurred earlier than merely literally at the last minute.”

      “The quicker we’re notified about such matters,” Haaser underscored, “then the quicker we can act on behalf of our employees to maintain the integrity--and safety--of the USDA workforce.”