Page images
PDF
EPUB

among the compliance agencies is the fact that a multiplicity of congressional appropriations subcommittees with varying program priorities are involved.

The

problem of imbalances in resources and enforcement capability of the various compliance agencies will be eliminated by the merger and success in maintaining an adequate overall level in the future should be even more assured with the involvement of a single appropriations subcommittee in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, each of which has employment related programs as a major priority.

The Task Force foresees no major or frequent confrontations arising from the use of legitimate contract sanctions in view of its perception that the procurement system institutionally accepts and administers EEO compliance decisions in the same manner as it does determinations regarding the responsiveness and the responsibility of contractors and prospective contractors with respect to other contract conditions. The Task Force finds that EEO compliance and enforcement under the Executive Order Program tend to be more successful under those present structural arrangements in which the compliance agency and the contracting agency are separate entities or in other situations in which compliance officials are not burdened with

Further, it should be noted that the Task Force

also recommends, later in this report, that enforcement rulings be made by a Federal Contract Compliance Appeals Board as a "neutral third party" whose decisions would constitute final agency action. Thus there would be a minimum degree of agency discretion (if any at all) in the processes leading to sanction actions. Finally, the Task Force notes that the General Accounting Office makes adherence to debarment listing mandatory on the part of contracting agencies and officers.

With regard to the possible divorcing of Executive branch agencies from civil rights responsibilities, the consolidation proposal assumes that the contracting agencies will retain line responsibility for equal opportunity in Federal employment, in enforcing procurement determinations under the Executive Order after the Labor Department determines responsibility, and in programs covered by title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

CHAPTER 4

LOCATION WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

I. Introduction and Background

Questions relating to the location, rank, or status of OFCCP within the Department have been at issue since its inception in 1965. In recognition that OFCCP's regulations, policies, and directives might carry less priority with implementing agencies and Federal contractors than those of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, efforts were made to upgrade the stature and level of the Director to the Executive Schedule. Under Executive Order 10925 OFCCP's predecessor organization, the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, was headed by the Vice President of the United States who delegated the day-to-day policy and operational responsibility to the Executive Vice Chairman. prestige and influence of the Office of the Vice President was sufficient to afford the Executive Vice Chairman personal access to corporate heads, labor union leadership, the leadership of minority rights organizations, and, equally important, to cabinet officers and senior level officials of the contract

The

rigid adherence to the Committee's policies, approaches, After Vice President Johnson assumed

and procedures.

the presidency in November 1973, the then Executive Vice Chairman of the President's Committee, Hobart Taylor, Jr., was elevated to the post of Assistant Counsel to the President from which even greater influence with the industrial, labor union, and civil rights leadership could be exercised.

With the issuance of Executive Order 11246, which assigned policy and leadership responsibility to the Labor Department, it became important for the Director, OFCCP, to be given the highest possible stature since the influence of the Office of the President or Vice President was no longer available. To assist in assuring that the implementing agencies would continue to afford the Executive Order Program a high degree of priority, the regulations issued under Executive Order 11246 provided that the top contract compliance official in each implementing agency was to be at a level at which he/she reported directly to the cabinet officer or other agency head. Ironically, for reasons relating to the absence of responsibility for the total program (both staff and operations) the U.S. Civil Service Commission assigned

the executive schedule. However, this reduction in stature was somewhat counterbalanced by the fact that OFCCP was located in the Office of the Secretary of Labor to whom the first Director reported directly.

OFCCP was merged with the Employment Standards Administration in 1969 with the appointment of Arthur A. Fletcher, a Black, as Assistant Secretary. As announced in an accompanying news release, the purpose of the merger was to enable OFCCP to take advantage of ESA's superior support services--planning, research, personnel management, program evaluation,

public relations, etc.--and investigative resources.1

[blocks in formation]

Although use of ESA's planning, research and program evaluation capability was contemplated by the merger, adequate support services in those areas have not been consistently available. As highlighted in the succeeding chapters of this report, OFCCP has consistently lacked certain fundamental tools necessary to discharge its responsibilities fully. these tools are the following: (1) a data base which provides sufficient information to permit the

Among

1News, U.S. Department of Labor--11-345, July 22,

« PreviousContinue »