Bureau of Indian Affairs employees reported an "alarming" level of misconduct within their agency, according to the results of an internal survey.

When asked by the Department of Interior's Office of Inspector General (OIG), a record 63 percent of BIA employees said they saw misconduct in the workplace The rate was by far the highest within the department, where observed misconduct ranged from 29 percent to 44 percent.

Further, a record 39 percent of BIA employees said they do not expect misconduct to be punished. The department-wide rate was 27 percent, "an equally alarming" number, according to the OIG.

"The frequency with which employees observed misconduct combined with the percentage of employees that did not expect misconduct to be disciplined in their workplace indicates that employees do not report misconduct to supervisors, that supervisors take little or no disciplinary action, or both," OIG wrote in a report posted online last month.

The reasons for the failure to report misconduct varied, according to the survey. Department-wide, some employees feared retaliation, didn't want to get involved or felt it wasn't their responsibility.

Within the BIA, only 38 percent of employees felt their supervisor would do something about misconduct if it was reported. Another 30 percent felt supervisors would ignore the problem altogether.

Across the board, BIA employees reported the highest levels of misconduct. They said they observed wrongdoing more often than their counterparts and nearly 55 percent said it went unpunished.

Incidents of workplace misconduct were broken into several categories, including personal use of government charge cards, abuse of time and leave policies, sexual harassment and working under the influence of alcohol and drugs. When asked whether these problems were ignored, BIA employees reported the highest levels in every category.

The only exception were abuses related to the use of the Internet. BIA employees have not had access to e-mail and web browsers since December 2001 due to inadequate computer security protections.

The OIG didn't analyze why BIA employees reported such high levels of wrongdoing. According to the report, BIA employees were 12.0 percent of the survey respondents, not an overly significant representation. The agency has about 10,000 employees, most of whom are Alaska Native or American Indian.

The report didn't go into details of the types of misconduct employees observed. But, among those in non-supervisory positions, it noted that some felt wrongdoing was rewarded.

"The joke is if you mess up, you get moved �up and out� to an easier place," one employee was quoted as saying.

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Relevant Links:
Office of Inspector General - http://www.oig.doi.gov