Could Agency Insiders ‘RIG’ a $250K ‘Catch & Kill’ Payout from their Federal EEO Program?
TGDW — CHAPTER TWO: Seeing the Big Picture — PART 2 of 2
A technical story overview for: “THE GOVERNMENT DENIES WRONGDOING (TGDW)— Finding Ancient Jesus in the Post-Whistleblower Era” — a dramatized story series based on real events, by Eeshan V. Melder
[DISCLAIMER: This story is part of a dramatized article series, based on real events. In certain cases, events, characters and timelines have been created, changed, or removed, for dramatic purposes, to allow exploration of religious beliefs and spirituality, to protect sources of information, or solely for entertainment purposes. This story is NOT legal or professional advice. It’s a story. Regarding all matters of law, career, or government policy, please consult a licensed attorney, relevant expert or the appropriate federal agency. The U.S. government denies any, and all, wrongdoing.]
INTRODUCTION
My name is Eeshan. I’m a lifelong political independent, and a specialist in federal programs with 25+ years of experience.
In 2010, I became a federal IT manager.
THE GOVERNMENT DENIES WRONGDOING story series tells the dramatized story of my resignation from federal service in 2020.
My resignation came after a death threat — and a series of mysterious ‘accidents’ affecting colleagues involved, as witnesses, in a pending Federal Sector EEO investigation. Were they coincidences?
The report shares evidence suggesting the existence — and ongoing government ‘insider’ exploitation — of two (2) glaring loopholes in the federal employee civil rights violation reporting proecss. This is also the sexual harassment reporting process. This government-wide process is driven, in large part, by the 1972 Federal Sector EEO laws which cover federal workers, who were singled out along with independent contractors, to be exempted, by Congress, from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
CHAPTER ONE and CHAPTER TWO are an overview of the technical part of the story, all in one place. CHAPTER THREE and CHAPTER FOUR are a prelude story called “Blood Curse, White Cobra”. It tells the true family legend of a blood curse, on my attorney grandfather in Sri Lanka back in the 1930s. He was cursed by a local folk magic practitioner after he, allegedly, used his legal skills in ways that were harmful to others…
I hope you enjoy THE GOVERNMENT DENIES WRONGDOING story series.
Peace be with you.
With love & respect,
Eeshan
THE GOVERNMENT DENIES WRONGDOING — Finding Ancient Jesus in the Post-Whistleblower Era
A DRAMATIZED STORY BASED ON REAL EVENTS
CHAPTER TWO: Seeing the BIG PICTURE (an overview of THE GOVERNMENT DENIES WRONGDOING, in five sections) — PART 2
Four years after the Hon. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, who championed the Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 1964, was murdered — the Nixon administration and the 92nd Congress passed their own civil rights law. Under that 1972 law, federal workers were exempted from direct access to make a public civil rights complaint. Instead, government employer-run EEO Programs — at each agency in government — became the mandatory, “alternative”, system for federal workers to report sexual harassment, or other EEO violations — under very different rules for what constitutes a ‘valid’ civil rights complaint.
#2 — IN 2017, OUR SUPERVISOR IGNORED THE WARNINGS AND COMPLAINED
In 2017, our supervisor got annoyed.
A female VIP we’d been assigned to support…she was openly hitting on our IT staff. This included an IT Specialist on our team named David Matthews — and me.
Those 3 people — and me — are the characters in this part of the story…
CAST OF CHARACTERS
- David Matthews. An IT Specialist on my team
- Our Supervisor. A federal IT executive
- The female VIP. Another federal executive we’d been tasked with supporting with IT services.
- Me. A federal IT manager
Our supervisor was annoyed because IT Specialist Matthews had begun widely reporting a romantic relationship with this female VIP. The Matthews VIP romance was very visible. Eventually, almost everyone knew what was up.
Matthews was proud. She was so far above his pay grade. He wanted to tell everyone. While some guys did high fives, I think our supervisor was embarrassed by it, and I don’t blame him.
I think this whole scenario rubbed him the wrong way.
“Federal staff had told me for years it was impossible to report sexual harassment in government — without also, then, being administratively attacked by ‘agency insiders’ who protect a culture of sexual misconduct. As a federal manager, I’d disputed them…then, I slowly began to see it for myself…”
Our supervisor was one of those guys that always had a worried look on his face. Short and stout, with a wisp of a mustache, he had that male pattern baldness that leaves once handsome men looking like Benedictine monks.
His family was Italian, and he always made sure you knew that he still had some old country flavor. Little expressions. Pictures in his office. Everything had a story. He was one of the few managers that would go out of his way to help staff. At the same time, he felt like he’d earned his spot at the top, and he craved respect.
Government is like the military in some ways. You’re supposed to cultivate peer-to-peer relationships with the executives at your level. This was clearly NOT peer-to-peer relationship building.
The female VIP was sharp, savvy. Definitely the ‘alpha’ of her peers.
Why was I being asked to do things — that appeared to violate the law — by the same team that was investigating me, while they were investigating me?
But when she came to our offices, she wouldn’t go see our superviosr. She’d head straight over to Matthews office. Our supervisor’s office was 10 feet away, across a corridor. Spectating all of that must have been like sandpaper on sunburn skin, for him.
Sometimes, it was Matthews who would be filling in our supervisor at team meetings on updates from this VIP. These were updates that should really have been given to our supervisor.
The unspoken taunt was that our supervisor was NOT the Alpha.
Matthews was.
A few months later — just a few months before my 50th birthday — the same female VIP now contacted me, on social media.
She introduced herself as “a former elected official”. She told me I was adorable, and asked about a foundation I’d started for single dads.
In our one, and only, chat, she asked me for a date.
I was super polite. I’m a single dad. I can’t afford work drama.
I said no thank you. I suggested hanging out as friends.
She said she wasn’t proposing marriage, and suggested we have some “make out sessions”.
I said no thanks, again.
She said goodbye.
A few days later, I saw she had severed the brand new social media connection.
I was like…sh*t.
I still had to work with her…
Don’t get me wrong. The female VIP is, by no means, the villain of this story. But actions have consequences. Even those that are unintentional can be like the first domino in a viral internet domino toppling video. The seemingly insignificant first event becomes the cause of a stunning massive collapse.
That’s sort of what happened next…
Working with this VIP got weird, for the whole team — for months.
I told our supervisor’s boss what happened. Like everyone else, he said not to say anything. She’ll get a slap on the wrist, and they’ll come after you. I think his warning was sincere.
So, I didn’t complain.
Plus, after years of management consulting, and difficult customers, I felt like I could get through it. You get a pretty thick skin leading consulting engagements. Every time something goes wrong, you get called in to explain…
Months later, another employee had a problem — with this same VIP.
He said he had stomach aches coming to work from his tensions deling with her. She was one of his customers. After some recent delays on a project, she’d given him a verbal ‘dressing down’. It brought him to near tears in a meeting — in front of the team, me, and our supervisor.
Our supervisor had enough. He went to HR.
When our supervisor spoke up to HR, I don’t know exactly what he said, or if he shared the VIPs name. But it came out I had these social media chat logs.
I got taken to HR.
I confirmed my supervisor’s story, but — based on the warnings — I refused to give up the VIPs name, or share the chat logs. I said I could take care of myself.
I did ask HR if they could talk to our team, in general terms, about making work a safe place.
They would not.
Instead, I think the ‘insiders’ came for us — just like staff had warned.
A few days later, Matthews filed an EEO disability discrimination complaint against me, in the agency EEO Program. Soon there was another, against me and our supervisor.
As Matthews filed internal EEO complaints, the same HR team that my supervisor took me to when he was reporting the female VIP showed up — to ‘advise me’ how to manage Matthews EEO complaints.
Then, in a Kafkaesque twist, the same HR team placed me under investigation for harassing Matthews, while advising me on managing Matthews. They then started trying to get me issue harsh discipline to Matthews.
They’re HR. They’re quite credible. It’s like having the state trooper jump in the Hyundai with you and tell you they’re commandeering your car to catch a fugitive — go! Hit the gas! Floor it!
Meanwhile their partner is waiting up ahead over the hill with a radar gun to pull you over for speeding. Who’s the judge going to believe?
I soon began to get the distinct impression that this same HR team had now begun giving me BAD legal advice, trying to mislead me into unknowingly incriminating myself as ‘retaliating’ — after Matthews recent EEO complaint. Retaliation is a violation all by itself — and one of the most common in the federal space.
[NOTE: It’s important to deeply consider the dependence a federal manager on HR for solid legal advice. The legal training most managers get is high level. We’re then told to follow HR guidance.]
Why was I being asked to do things — that appeared to violate the law — by the same team that was investigating me, while they were investigating me?
I asked and was told any HR guidance I get on the law is considered ‘advisory’. The federal manager appears to bear total responsibilty for the final action taken.
And if there’s an issue raised, guess who's probably going to get asked to look into it? Yep. HR or an HR contractor.
It went differently for me.
Having been warned by my colleagues, I was ready. I studied what the government did next. These requests to break the law were ‘anomalies’, but they weren’t random.
Twenty years of being a manager around federal operations told me something was hell wrong with this situation.
In government, power usually comes from congressionally delegated authority in a law, or an executive order.
If there really were ‘insiders’ working to protect sexual misconduct by VIPs — like staff had warned — whatever they might be trying to do had to come from some law, or authority.
What the hell was going on? I was scared, but only professionally.
This was administrative bullsh*t. Right?
Just bureaucrats playing office games. It’s not uncommon.
Right?
I was so wrong.
I had no idea what I was dealing with.
What I eventually found SHOCKED me beyond belief.
When I studied the federal EEO law, it took me down a rabbit hole into an untold side of internal government rulemaking, and the struggle for civil rights.
I think I found the insider’s illegal source of power — two loopholes in a 1972 law.
Here’s what I learned…
#3 — ARE THERE LOOPHOLES IN THE GOVERNMENT-WIDE FEDERAL EEO PROGRAM DESIGN?
I learned that government exempted federal workers from key civil rights protections — just after the Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 1964 was passed to create them.
The passage of the CRA — and desegregation — had created a huge political risk for all the legacy Segregationists who were still in government. They could now be accused of civil violations for racial discrimination! This is something their people and culture had believed, for generations, to be just. It was in accordance with natural law.
A racism complaint against a VIP in government? That was a ‘reputational risk’ to be managed.
Eight years later — and four years after the Hon. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, who championed the CRA, was murdered — the Nixon administration and the 92nd Congress passed their own civil rights law.
Under that 1972 law, federal workers were exempted from direct access to make a public civil rights complaint.
Instead, government employer-run EEO Programs — at each agency in government — became the mandatory, “alternative”, system for federal workers to report sexual harassment, or other EEO violations — under different rules.
As it turns out, Richard Nixon (R) was not a big fan of civil rights and of black people. That’s him in the picture with Robert Byrd (D). Byrd was the Senate Majority Whip at the time.
Byrd renounced segregation and racism later in life, but I’m also aware many legislators openly announced they were going underground to oppose the end of segregation in silence.
John Stennis (D), U.S. Senator from Mississippi is quoted online by the Equal Justice Initiative as saying “We are not going to comply with the Supreme Court decision of putting whites and blacks together, but the least we advertise that fact, the better.”
Laws are human-made things. They have weaknesses, and design flaws, like anything else human beings make. In some situations, these weaknesses are discovered, covered up and exploited. This is how computer hacking works. You find, or manufacture, a vulnerability in a system — then you exploit it.
I eventually found evidence of ongoing ‘government insider’ exploitation of two loopholes (critical vulnerabilities) in the design of the Federal EEO Programs created by this Nixon-administration law.
Remember, these programs are where federal workers MUST go to report being sexually harassed or facing other EEO discrimination. Anywhere you go, per current policy, you should eventually be directed HERE to your agency EEO Program.
On examining the program for years, I found an apparent loophole that can create a safe ‘exit’ for any VIP outed harasser — anywhere in the government — allowing them to resign or retire with no consequences after being reported for sexual harassment, or other EEO violations, to the program. There are also public reports in the media suggesting this is happening — and being downplayed or concealed.
The loophole appears to be ‘designed into’ the program. I’ll explain how I think it works.
I call it…
LOOPHOLE 1: THE ORIGINAL 1972 FEDERAL EEO VIP EXIT RAMP (FEVER) LOOPHOLE
The 1972 FEVER loophole exploits the fact that the 1972 Federal EEO law requires federal workers to make a 90-day, CONFIDENTIAL, ‘off-the-record’ initial complaint — with no EEO protections.
It’s MANDATORY.
It’s called an EEO Pre-Complaint. It was invented by the 1972 law.
After waiting through the Pre-Complaint for 90 days (purportedly for agency counseling or ‘mediation’) federal workers reporting sexual harassment or other EEO discrimination get their civil rights back — for just 15 days — to make a ‘real’ Federal EEO complaint.
It’s still a different process after that.
So, what’s the loophole?
Remember that EEO Pre-Complaint? Since you’re making a report that’s off-the-record, it creates a 90–105 day ‘artificial bubble of immunity’ where the complaint and evidence is known to the agency, but the alleged victim is barred from making a federal record by reporting a ‘real’ EEO violation.
The diagram below is from the Federal #MeToo Report (2020) by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
See the part that says, NOTICE OF RIGHT TO FILE in the diagram? That’s the point when you get notice back from the government that you’re ‘allowed’ to make a ‘real’ sexual harassment or other EEO complaint against them. It comes 90 days after you must make that mandatory ‘off-the-record’ initial report.
You’ll also see it’s another 180 days before you see the word INVESTIGATION.
Uh-huh.
Who waits 9 (90 days plus 180 days) months to do an investigation of ANYTHING???
Also, nine months is precisely the term of a human pregnancy. Back then, there was a daily news cycle. The way to embarrass a political type was to do a press conference with a pregnant woman, alleging he was a father.
Here’s where the loophole kicks in. Since this EEO Pre-Complaint is ‘off-the-record’, no legally admissible evidence yet exists of the allegation against the perpetrator.
EEO complaints — including sexual harassment — are against the EMPLOYER and not the individual perpetrator. If the perpetrator resigns before a real complaint can be made, and they talk on the record, they can walk, leaving no admissible evidence, from them, of their alleged harassment. Since EEO complaints are against the employer, and not the individual, my understanding is it then becomes difficult, if not impossible, to ever get the alleged perpetrator on the witness stand to testify.
To prevent resignations like this, to avoid consequences, the Society for Human Resource Management reports online that the EEO Commission recommends as follows to federal leaders: “Investigations of harassment allegations should begin within 10 calendar days of the employer being made aware of the incident, the EEOC noted.”
THIS ADMINISTRATIVE INQUIRY IN 10 DAYS IS THE ONLY THING THAT CREATES A PERMANENT FEDERAL RECORD OF THE HARASSMENT ALLEGATION.
But — if agency HR is willing to DELAY this investigation, or ‘soft-pedal’ it, and violate the internal confidentiality of the report, you now have a 90+15 day EEO ‘early warning system’ — not an EEO violation reporting system. This happens to be precisely what Segregationists still in the government needed in 1972 after the CRA was passed.
In my opinion, the 1972 LOOPHOLE is a very cleverly designed FAIL SAFE, for an already lopsided, offender-friendly civil rights reporting system. It appears designed to ensure no one could be held accountable for an EEO violation — if the government didn’t want them to be held accountable.
CONFIRMATION OF THE 1972 FEVER LOOPHOLE?
In October 2022, I sent a document to the FBI, with a copy to my attorney, explaining my theory on how the 1972 FEVER loophole worked.
I got no reply. But the FBI also runs their own, in-house, agency EEO Program for FBI employees.
Ten days later, The HILL reported that a whistleblower at the FBI had contacted Senator Chuck Grassley’s office.
They reported some 665 FBI employees had resigned to avoid disciplinary letters. You cannot calculate that date without a formula — like the one I had just sent the FBI. Could it be that me, or others, had elicited a whistleblower to share evidence of the 1972 loophole in action?
Whoah.
I went looking for further confirmation that the government might simply be avoiding holding staff accountable — creating a ‘revolving door’ for alleged perpetrators.
I found Democracy Now! reporting that The New York Times stated in 2022 that thousands of federal workers might have experienced harassment in this exact scenario.
It gets worse.
Since these programs can pay, I also think ‘insiders’ in the government have learned to use the apparent ‘cover’ afforded to the 1972 loophole as a vector for insider fraud.
I call it…
LOOPHOLE 2: THE 1991/2009 “DISABILITY EEO AUTOMATIC DAMAGES AWARD FRAUD” (DEADAF) LOOPHOLE
Even during the EEO Pre-Complaint stage, the 1972 law shockingly allows agency EEO Programs to fast track settlement payments to ‘erase’ EEO liability — reportedly as high as $255,000.
Doing this seems to mean no EEO complaint is ever recorded, and the government is paying off a confidential report of sexual harassment — leaving little to no official records it ever happened.
The law also has no obligation that anyone be punished. It’s left up to HR.
This may be unethical, but it is embedded in law. It’s legal.
Then, newer laws changed the game, and created a loophole for fraud.
As I later learned, after years of research, LOOPHOLE #2 appears to exploit newer laws in 1991 and 2009 that call for ‘automatic damage awards of money or other benefits’ for only ONE specific EEO violation:
“manager retaliation after an EEO disability complaint”.
According to a conspicuous editor’s note on the top of an EEO Commission web page: “The Civil Rights Act of 1991 (Pub. L. 102–166) (CRA) and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (Pub. L. 111–2) amend several sections of Title VII. In addition, section 102 of the CRA…amends the Revised Statutes by adding a new section following section 1977 (42 U.S.C. 1981), to provide for the recovery of compensatory and punitive damages in cases of intentional violations of Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.”
The government is excluded from punitive damages, but compensatory damages are on the table according to Section 7, II (a) of the EEO Commission’s enforcement guidance. Is it possible that insiders — knowing they have access to a system that pays federal money, shielded from oversight to protect the 1972 loophole — have learned how to ‘roll’ a new manager for a settlement?
If I’m right, it could be a vector for insider fraud — in the millions.
THE DISABILITY EEO LOOPHOLE IS USED AGAINST ME — AND FAILS.
In THE GOVERNMENT DENIES WRONGDOING, IT Specialist Matthews — who was reporting the affair with the VIP — appears to try to use the 1991/2009 loophole.
Weeks after our supervisor goes to HR about the female VIP, IT Specialist Matthews, files a disability discrimination EEO Pre-Complaint against the agency.
But there’s no evidence. So, again, how do you “make” evidence that a manager has discriminated?
ANSWER: You can’t. But you CAN make evidence they appeared to retaliate, to fit the 1991/2009 laws by creating evidence of something called a Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave ‘interference’ violation.
FMLA leave is federally protected, under a 1993 law. If a manager, like me, can be induced to interfere with an employee when they try to use it, I’d be technically guilty of a crime called ‘FMLA interference’. If I, as Matthews’ manager, interfered with his FMLA — by disciplining him for using it, or seeking more medical support for his already-approved FMLA — it would look EXACTLY like retaliation. It’s often presumed to be retaliatory in court.
IS THIS THE 1991 LOOPHOLE FORMULA?
Because of the 1991 law, an EEO “DISABILITY” PRE-COMPLAINT + evidence of a manager FMLA violation afterwards = a $255K GOLDEN TICKET.
A senior executive can be advised by ‘insiders’ in HR & Legal that there’s hard evidence of a manager FMLA violation…after a DISABILITY EEO PRE-COMPLAINT. They can be advised it’s better to ‘settle’ using the 1972 law. Oh, by the way, the 1991 law calls for ‘automatic’ compensatory damages.
So what happened when the 1991 loophole is then tried on me, and my management team, with Matthews filing the necessary ‘in-house’ EEO complaints?
It FAILS — 5 times in a row. Why does it fail?
The ‘insiders’, in the story, are unaware I’m the former Vice Chair of a county commission that handled discrimination complaints. I knew the laws…and enough to understand what they might be doing, very early.
So, I prayed, kept myself safe, and tried to capture data on what I thought I was seeing so I could report it. When I began to report what I was seeing, the government staunchly denied wrongdoing, so I backed off.
CIRCULAR MISCONDUCT REFERRAL
I was also disturbed to get something auditors call a ‘circular referral’ from the government.
What does that mean? So, when I said I was seeing apparent manipulation of the EEO Program, I was told to use the EEO Program to report it. Telling someone to use the EEO Program to report the corruption of the EEO Program is a red flag to any auditor. It’s foolishness on it’s face.
I almost walked away. Then, the civil rights-minded girlfriend I had at the time accused me of being ‘weak’ for not standing up and complaining. If I thought something was wrong — I should report it.
I couldn’t argue with her. She had a point.
Plus, she was a Pastor at a church where the Hon. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King once preached. The guilt trip was a bit…next level.
So I stepped up.
I took the government’s ‘circular referral’ — and took notes.
I turned the tables and triggered an investigation of the ‘insiders’…
4. SO WHAT HAPPENED WHEN I TURNED THE TABLES?
In 2018, I filed my own EEO Pre-Complaint — reporting (a) my supervisors attempt to complain about the female VIP, and (b) the following failed, apparent, attempts to incriminate us as retaliating against Matthews, as he made EEO disability complaints.
I used the EEO Program to report the EEO Program.
It appeared to work! I triggered an EEO investigation of the ‘insiders’. Per the EEO rules, that EEO investigation was scheduled for some 9 months away in September 2019.
THE VIP ABRUPTLY RESIGNED
The female VIP that Matthews had reported having an affair with? The one that was asking me for make-out sessions on social media?
She resigns — abruptly — within 90 days of the EEO Pre-Complaint — in the ‘off-the-record’ phase — with no investigation whatsoever.
The investigation from the government due in 10 (ten) days?
It comes on day #105 after my EEO Pre-Complaint.
That’s the 90 days for the government’s mediation/counseling time, plus the 15 days Feds are given to make a complaint — this appears to make 105 days of ‘artificial immunity’ thanks to the 1972 law.
Again, because EEO investigations are not criminal, and are simply civil complaints against an employer, if an alleged perpetrator resigns, they can no longer be made to testify.
The 1972 FEVER loophole allowed her a clean departure after an EEO report. You could read the rules for a hundred years, and never see the 1972 FEVER loophole, because it’s not in the rules.
The secret is knowing which rule to break when you’re implementing the process.
Was the timing of her departure just a coincidence?
OUR SUPERVISOR’S HOUSE BURNS ON MY BIRTHDAY
Three months before the EEO investigation, the other most senior witness, our supervisor, had his home — and multiple cars — all burn in a fire.
The massive house fire happened at just the right time not to hurt anyone. Everyone had just left to go have dinner at Tysons Corner Mall in Northern Virginia. The fire was blamed, reportedly — and inexplicably — on a single airbag detonator failure.
The fire was on my birthday.
Just another coincidence?
MY OFFICE IS BREACHED AND A HINDU STATUE TURNED BACKWARDS
Six weeks after the fire, I came to work after being out to find my government office door unlocked and open. A card from agency security was on my desk authorizing an entry for a door repair. Normally locked doors are re-locked. Yet, my door had been left unlocked and open for days.
Nothing was disturbed except for a tiny Hindu statue of the god Venkatesh, on my shelf, just above my laptop.
It had been turned backwards.
Agency security refused to investigate. They said it was not their purview.
Another coincidence?
IT SPECIALIST MATTHEWS IS FOUND DEAD
Just days before the EEO investigation, Matthews, who’d been filing the baseless EEO complaints to allegedly fuel fraud — was found dead.
Another coincidence?
I GOT A DEATH THREAT
After Matthews funeral, a colleague contacted me with a warning. He said he was hearing death threats about me.
Nothing felt like a coincidence to me, after that.
5. I TOOK A LEAP OF FAITH. I RESIGNED AND AUTHORED AN INDEPENDENT CONGRESSIONAL REPORT…AND THIS DRAMATIZED STORY
I was scared. Not going to lie about that. But being a Fed is not like other jobs. Being a Fed means taking an oath to God, so I prayed, and I studied the most ancient teachings of Christ.
I learned for the first time that, by 300 years after Jesus died, there was a flourishing worldwide religion called Manichaeism from Britannia to modern day China.
It featured Zoroaster, Jesus and Buddha side by side.
They taught — not WWJD, but more simply to — DO WHAT JESUS DO or DID (DWJD) in the Bible.
If you see injustice, peacefully speak the truth. Just as He did. Follow His example.
I’m a trained investigator. So, in 2020, I resigned my job with the government, which paid over $200K, and took a leap of faith.
I analyzed the Federal EEO Program design and authored a simple INDEPENDENT CONGRESSIONAL REPORT — illustrated like a graphic novel.
It shares my understanding of the shocking untold civil rights history behind the 1972 Federal EEO law.
My report suggests the law was designed not to protect federal workers, but to protect the legacy VIP Segregationists — all still in government after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (just 8 years before) — from an embarrassing, public, EEO complaint.
My theory?
A new generation of government “insiders” may be using the authorities in these outdated 1972 laws — not to rescue VIPs — but to enable organized sexual misconduct, corrupt public officials and defraud EEO Programs — all over the federal government…
POSTSCRIPT
In April 2020, a month after I resigned from government, the Federal #MeToo report was released by the government’s own U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
The report raised concerns about this very same program.
More than a year later, a September 2021 article in FEDWeek quoted a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) from a group of legislators urging an audit of the federal EEO program. The letter cited concerns “…the ‘fox is guarding the henhouse’, due to…agencies conducting their own (sexual harassment) complaint investigations…”.
As of 2024, and it’s not clear if any audit has happened. In February 2024, an article in FEDWeek noted that GAO issued “a report on training on preventing sexual harassment in the federal workplace says that such harassment has been a persistent problem for years, and also one that is underreported”.
No audit is indicated. No other action to actually address the problem is indicated or recommended. The GAO has been asked to conduct an audit of the Federal Sector EEO Program by legislators. It appears the organization is making a choice not to do so.
Why? Is the government cooking the books on sexual harassment?
The article does add, “GAO pointed out that it has issued some two dozen reports on sexual harassment and assault since 2011, some of them focused on the uniformed military but most involving federal employees as well, or exclusively.”
Meanwhile, sexual abuse scandals have continued to emerge in government at the Merchant Marine Academy (Department of Transportation) and elsewhere. In 2023, the Los Angeles Times ran an article…“Former warden at women’s prison known as ‘rape club’ gets 70 months for sexual abuse”. The warden of this federal prison was found guilty of molesting his own inmates in his prison, forcing them to pose naked for him. These are criminal, not civil, offenses, but could the permissiveness of the workplace Federal EEO laws for staff be a factor?
In February of this year, CNN reported a story with the headline, “CIA fires whistleblower who is suing over claim she was sexually assaulted at spy agency’s headquarters”, further suggesting we may have indeed entered a very dangerous ‘post-Whistleblower’ era.
If so, it compromises the security of federal workers, and the integrity of government, in profound ways that even legislators and attorneys may not fully understand.
CLICK HERE FOR CHAPTER THREE!!! It’s a PRELUDE story about the curse on my grandfather. It’s called BLOOD CURSE, WHITE COBRA.
THE GOVERNMENT DENIES WRONGDOING — Finding Ancient Jesus in the Post-Whistleblower Era
A DRAMATIZED STORY BASED ON REAL EVENTS
INDEX OF CHAPTERS
CHAPTER ONE: Seeing the Big Picture — PART 1
CHAPTER TWO: Seeing the Big Picture — PART 2 (You are here!)
CHAPTER THREE: Blood Curse, White Cobra — PART 1
CHAPTER FOUR: Blood Curse, White Cobra — PART 2
CHAPTER FIVE: The Shocking Untold History of the Government’s Civil Rights ‘Exemption’ Program (Coming soon!)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eeshan Melder is a Public Sector IT Programs Specialist with 25+ years of experience in federal program operations. After 15 years as a Public Sector Management Consultant, he joined the federal service as a senior manager. He spent a decade at two different departments of government as a Supervisory IT Program Manager, a Senior Adviser, and a Division Director. In 2015, Eeshan was certified as a federal agency Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt, specially trained to diagnose broken federal systems using engineering industry methods. In 2019, he received the Comptroller’s Award, one of the highest performance-based awards given by his federal employer, for generating exceptional cost savings to the government. In early 2020, he resigned from federal service, reporting apparent vulnerabilities in the design of the mandatory Federal EEO Program used across the federal government, since 1972, for federal employees to report sexual harassment and other EEO violations. He holds a Master’s degree in Communications Management from the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Southern California, and a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, from Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada.
