OSC recognizes federal mine safety employees who blew the whistle about skipped inspections

The Office of Special Counsel on Wednesday selected two Mine Safety and Health Administration employees, who disclosed that mines in the Pacific territories have not been inspected since 2016, as winners of its annual award honoring government whistleblowers. 

“We thank these whistleblowers for their courage in coming forward, shining a light not only on serious health and safety risks to miners but also the agency's failure to accurately report the status of mine inspections to Congress," said OSC senior counsel Charles Baldis in a statement. “We applaud their bravery in alerting Congress and the public and helping ensure needed change is brought to MSHA while encouraging other whistleblowers to report government wrongdoing." 

Patrick Barney, an MSHA assistant district manager, and supervisory special investigator Troy Van Wey reported to OSC that, from 2016 to 2023, 51 active mines in Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands were incorrectly classified as “new mines,” a designation that does not require inspections. Underground mines must be inspected by federal investigators at least four times a year and surface mines twice annually. 

Then, in a December 2023 incident, an acting district manager in MSHA’s Vacaville, California, district directed an employee to label the mines as abandoned. When the employee refused, another agency official changed the mines’ statuses. 

Barney and Van Wey’s disclosure led to an investigation by the Labor Department’s inspector general as well as by DOL itself. 

The IG in November 2024 issued an alert memorandum that MSHA wasn’t conducting mandatory inspections in the Pacific territories, improperly classified the mines’ statuses and, therefore, inaccurately reported that it had a 100% completion rate of required mine inspections. The watchdog issued 11 recommendations, including that the agency should revise and implement a plan for inspecting mines in the three territories and that the agency should correct the mine statuses. 

OSC criticized MSHA for not planning on restarting inspections in the Pacific territories until fiscal 2027. 

In response to the DOL investigation, according to OSC, one of the whistleblowers “expressed disappointment with the agency’s response to the investigative findings and doubt about its commitment to integrity and accountability.” The other didn’t comment on the findings. 

Trump’s nominee to lead the OSC, Paul Ingrassia, was scheduled to have his confirmation hearing on July 24, but his appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee was postponed. 

Ingrassia is a former podcast host who graduated from law school in 2022, has legally and publicly defended Andrew Tate — an influencer who has been accused of rape and human trafficking in Europe — and described federal employees as “parasites” who “leech of the diminishing lifeblood of the dying republic.” 

Good government groups have argued that Ingrassia is a “demonstrably unserious nominee.” 

After Ingrassia’s nomination was announced, David Kligerman, senior vice president and special counsel at the legal nonprofit Whistleblower Aid, told Government Executive that a “partisan-minded” special counsel could turn the OSC from a “shield” meant to protect whistleblowers into a “sword” that could be used to go after individuals. 

“If a special counsel wanted to shut down whistleblowing, not only could he or she block any efforts by the OSC to protect whistleblowers from retaliation, but he or she could also use the OSC to actively aid and abet that retaliation by sharing information about the names and allegations of whistleblowers to the very individuals at agencies who are involved in the alleged wrongdoing,” he said.