Summary: In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the extent to which the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) Birmingham district office closed pending discrimination charges in September 1985, regardless of the investigative status, to meet production goals.
GAO found that: (1) the Birmingham office closed 29 percent of the charges without completing a full investigation; (2) the investigations were deficient because they lacked comparative documentary evidence on the respondent's treatment of the charging party compared with other employees; (3) although the EEOC compliance manual provides specific guidance on how to resolve conflicting evidence, 83 percent of the charges did not include documentary evidence corroborating the respondent's reply to the charge; and (4) district managers instructed compliance investigators to close charges with insufficient evidence. GAO also found that: (1) the district office has not conducted full investigations since EEOC established unrealistic production goals in 1978; and (2) the district office staff considers investigations to be merely paperwork processes.
