Whistle-Blowing Employee of Government Contractor Testifies About Banishment to Basement Office
An engineer who blew the whistle on problems with a project to clean up a hazardous nuclear waste site has been banished to a windowless basement office for his efforts.
Walt Tamosaitis, an engineer who worked for a federal subcontractor on the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant project in southeastern Washington state, testified before Congress last week that he was taken off the job and escorted off the premises last year after raising safety and technical concerns about the project, the Washington Post reports.
“I’ve been sitting in a basement office now for nearly 16 months,” Tamosaitis told the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ad hoc subcommittee on contracting oversight.
The congressional panel is considering legislation that would extend whistle-blower protections to employees of government contracting companies. If passed, the legislation would greatly increase the number of people who have protections against retaliation for making certain disclosures while doing government work.
The cleanup project is an Energy Department program, being run by Bechtel Corp. and URS Corp, that is designed to put 56 million gallons of hazardous nuclear waste into a stable waste form to eliminate an environmental and safety threat.
A spokeswoman for the Energy Department said the department has repeatedly made it clear that retribution for raising safety concerns will not be tolerated. “We are committed to continuing to improve our approach to safety at the Waste Treatment Plant, including making sure that technical and safety issues are addressed in an effective manner,” she said.
A spokesman for Bechtel denied that Tamosaitis is being punished for speaking out.
“We have not and will not tolerate retaliation or harassment in any form against anyone who raises issues,” he said.
