The majority threshold was crossed
GAO reviewed 73 Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General whistleblower-retaliation investigations opened and closed during fiscal years 2018 through 2025. Thirty-nine—53.4%—took more than three years to investigate.
OIG officials cited case complexity and limited staffing and said they emphasized quality and thoroughness. GAO found, however, that the office had not defined timeliness in measurable terms, evaluated its performance or installed other accountability mechanisms.
| Measure | GAO result |
|---|---|
| Closed investigations reviewed | 73 |
| Taking more than 3 years | 39 (53.4%) |
| Substantiated cases | 11 |
| Secretary decisions within 30 days | 0 |
| Still awaiting a decision in May 2026 | 6 of 11 |
Even substantiated complaints entered a second delay
OIG substantiated 11 of the 73 cases. Federal law called for the DHS secretary to decide whether to take corrective action within 30 days, but none received a decision in that period. The cases waited another four months to more than two years.
As of May 2026, the secretary had decided to take corrective action in five and had not decided the remaining six. Thus 54.5% of the substantiated cases in GAO’s cohort still lacked a decision at that checkpoint.
Investigation time and remedy time compound each other
The original contribution is to combine the two stages rather than treating OIG completion as the endpoint. A complainant could wait years for an investigation and then wait again for a legally required corrective-action decision, even after retaliation was substantiated.
Substantiation is an administrative finding within this process, not a criminal conviction, and GAO’s report does not name individual employees or disclose each remedy. Long cases may be complex, but a general preference for thoroughness does not explain the absence of measurable timeliness controls or responsibility for the secretary’s deadline.
Three open fixes and important limits
GAO recommended measurable OIG timeliness controls, decisions on the six pending substantiated cases and a designated process for future corrective-action decisions. DHS OIG and DHS agreed; all three recommendations were open at publication.
The 73 cases are the set opened and closed in the reviewed period, not every complaint DHS received. GAO also interviewed nongeneralizable samples of advocates and personnel. This report therefore measures the documented case cohort and does not estimate the prevalence of retaliation across the department.