Trump Admin Forces Out USAID Official Who Refused to Comply With 'Illegal' Purge | Common Dreams
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A career official at the U.S. Agency for International Development said he was placed on leave after refusing an order to "violate the due process of our employees."

A career official at the U.S. Agency for International Development informed his colleagues Thursday that he was placed on administrative leave after refusing to carry out what he described as an unlawful purge directive handed down by the agency’s front office and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.

Nicholas Gottlieb, director of employee and labor relations at USAID, wrote in an email to other agency workers that he was “instructed… to violate the due process of our employees by issuing immediate termination notices to a group of employees.”

“I refused and have provided Acting Administrator [Jason] Gray with written notification of my refusal,” Gottlieb continued. “I have recommended in that written notification that his office cease and desist from further illegal activity.”

    • pelespiritOPMEnglish
      3·
      2 hours ago

      Whoa, months or years to days:

      The Office of Personnel Management published a final rule this week on the 2016 Administrative Leave Act, capping how long federal employees can remain on administrative investigative leave to 10 days per year. The regulations clarify how agencies should implement the restrictions on paid administrative leave for employees who are under investigation or awaiting a decision on an adverse personnel action.

      Congress passed the legislation as part of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act after growing concerns about the costs associated with administrative leave, as well as the long time periods agencies were taking to complete personnel investigations. In 2014, the Government Accountability Office estimated that the salaries of federal employees on paid administrative leave were costing the government $31 million per year.