The following FOIA request has been made to the Merit Systems Protection Board:

I respectfully request any documents related to 5 U.S.C. 1204(a)(3) regarding any studies, and/or inquiries, discussions, or communications as to whether to conduct such studies, related to the tenure and administration of Scott Bloch at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel for the time period of 2003-2008, as well as the period following his ouster (2008-2011).

It’s common knowledge that Bloch allegedly retaliated against his own staff. If so — if he created a hostile environment inside OSC where fear, favor, reprisal, and/or intimidation ran rampant, then the public interest in a civil service free of prohibited personnel practices was/is likely not adequately protected. This is all the more important because OSC is supposed to protect the rest of the civil service from such harms, so a broken culture there has reverberating effects elsewhere.

My request seeks to find out if MSPB issued, or contemplated issuing, any studies, per its statutory authority, to find out if the public interest was harmed.