Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz announced today the issuance of a Procedural Reform Recommendation (PRR) for the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS). The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) releases PRRs when, through its investigative work, it identifies a systematic weakness in Justice Department operations, programs, policies, procedures, or practices, and has a recommendation to address the identified problem.
The OIG issued this PRR after a senior-level USMS employee retired without serving any disciplinary penalty, and with his full pension pursuant to a settlement agreement, despite two OIG investigations that substantiated allegations of serious misconduct by the official. As stated in the PRR, it is the OIG’s view that prompt disciplinary action in response to substantiated misconduct findings serves several important principles: accountability; deterrence; integrity of the workforce; preservation of resources; and maintaining employee morale. Accordingly, the PRR recommends that the USMS implement policies, procedures, and internal controls to address deficiencies in its processing of adverse personnel actions that were exposed in the USMS response to these investigations, and ensure prompt and effective imposition of appropriate discipline in cases of substantiated employee misconduct.
PRR: The PRR, which contains additional details about the two investigations noted above and the USMS’s response to the OIG’s findings, is available under "Recent Reports" on the OIG’s website and at the following link: https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2019/i190213.pdf.
Additional information: Further information about these investigations is available in two investigative summaries previously posted on the OIG’s website here and here.