Contractor Employee (“Whistleblower”) Protection  Program (10 CFR Part 708)

On December 8, 2014, OHA issued a decision denying a jurisdictional appeal filed by Kamil Gierszal, Ph.D (Dr. Gierszal), a former Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) employee at the DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  Dr. Gierszal appealed the Oak Ridge Office’s (ORO) Employee Concerns Program Manager’s dismissal of a whistleblower complaint that he filed under 10 CFR Part 708, the DOE’s Contractor Employee Protection Program. OHA denied Dr. Gierszal’s Complaint after finding that he had waived any right to file a Complaint as part of his termination agreement with ORAU, and that his Complaint did not raise issues for which relief could be granted under Part 708. Specifically, OHA concluded that Dr. Gierszal failed to allege that he suffered retaliation for engaging in activities that are protected under Part 708.  Accordingly, OHA found that ORO properly dismissed Dr. Gierszal’s Complaint.    OHA Case No. WBU-14-0013

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Appeal

On December 10, 2014, OHA issued a decision granting in part an appeal (Appeal) from a FOIA determination issued by the Office of Information Resources (OIR). In the Appeal, SNL Energy (Appellant), challenged an OIR determination in which it withheld portions of requested Form OE 417s - specifically, information related to various criminal acts which had been committed against electric transformer equipment. OIR withheld the material under Exemption 4 which protects, among other information, commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential. OIR asserted that the withheld information, if released, would cause the submitters of the Form OE-417s competitive financial harm since release of the information would reveal the submitters business strategies and potential vulnerabilities of their electric transmission systems. Upon an examination of the withheld material, OHA found that the material, for the most part, generally describes the nature of the various criminal acts committed against various electrical transmission facilities and the fact that the incidents were reported to various law enforcement agencies. Consequently, OHA found that the assertions of competitive harm based upon release of the withheld information at issue were generalized, speculative, and conclusory. Because OHA did not find that release of the withheld information would cause competitive harm, OHA found that Exemption 4 did not protect the withheld information from release pursuant to the FOIA.  OHA remanded the case to OIR with instructions to either release the withheld information or issue a new determination justifying the withholding of the material under the FOIA.  OHA Case No. FIA-14-0080