September 13

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, finds the volume of discrimination complaints against USDA "disturbing" and urged department officials to report promptly on efforts being made to resolve pending complaints and prevent future discrimination.

USDA Inspector General Roger Viadero told the committee that the Office of Civil Rights has been "a portrait of a dysfunctional agency." Staff has remained demoralized throughout three major reorganizations, he said. "Management's attempts to improve the working environment have been perfunctory, and its attitude toward accountability has been unenthusiastic."

Delays in processing and inconsistencies in handling complaints further have marred the integrity of the system. "Unless the Office of Civil Rights implements a management plan that addresses effective leadership, a changing organizational culture, customer focus and process re-engineering, we question whether future complaints of discrimination in employment and in the distribution of program benefits will receive due care," Viadero said.

Lugar said, "In recent years there has been an increasing number of class action lawsuits and administrative complaints against USDA alleging discrimination. These lawsuits and complaints are of two types - program complaints and employment discrimination complaints. The program complaints are those involving members of the public who are the participants in USDA programs. The second type involve employees of the department who believe they have been victims of some type of discrimination."

The statements came Tuesday at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing.

According to testimony, USDA received more than 1,200 program discrimination complaints in 1999 and more than 450 complaints are still pending. USDA has about 1,700 pending employee complaints and averages more than 800 new complaints each year.

"Since 1997, the USDA inspector general (OIG) has performed at least eight reviews evaluating the department's efforts to solve the complex civil rights problems...The General Accounting Office (GAO) has also studied the issue. Both OIG and GAO made numerous recommendations to help solve the problems," said Lugar. "The most troubling aspect of these reports is how few of the deficiencies identified by either OIG or GAO in previous reports are ever corrected."

Lugar said the "missing link" seems to be accountability – "from the highest level of management to the county supervisor in the field who fails to adequately service an African American farmer's loan."

He urged USDA officials to expeditiously report on the progress being made to implement recommendations made by the OIG and GAO. The USDA is currently working on a Civil Rights Management Plan to address this matter.

Lugar said he would continue to work with Secretary Dan Glickman on issues that were brought up at the hearing. "I have an ongoing concern about allegations of discrimination at USDA and will work with USDA to ensure that these matters are resolved promptly and accurately," he said.