a memo dated Thursday<\/a>\u00a0and released Friday.<\/p>\nTitled \u201cRestoring Good Order and Discipline Through Balanced Accountability,\u201d the review is meant \u201cto ensure prompt and impartial investigations, fair treatment of all involved, and timely and appropriate resolution of allegations of discrimination,\u201d the memo states.<\/p>\n
In a video posted to social media announcing the review, Hegseth said it\u2019s \u201ca good thing\u201d that the DOD has equal opportunity programs for people to report discrimination and harassment. But he insisted that the programs are sometimes \u201cweaponized,\u201d with some individuals using them \u201cin bad faith to retaliate\u201d against superiors or peers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hear it all the time. Say you receive a bad evaluation, well, file a military EO complaint. It’s nonsense. We want to fix that,\u201d Hegseth said, calling the directive his \u201cno more walking on eggshells\u201d policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see too often at the Defense Department there are complaints made for certain reasons that can’t be verified that end people’s career, either through EO or the [Office of the Inspector General],\u201d Hegseth added. \u201cWe need to reform that process completely so commanders can be commanders.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did not include specific examples of such abuses of the complaint system, and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions from The Hill pertaining to details of such \u201cbad faith\u201d uses of the EO process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each service secretary must now \u201cidentify areas for reform, and provide plans to streamline the investigation process, timely address problematic behaviors, and mitigate undue mission impacts,\u201d within 45 days, per Hegseth’s memo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The plans must include specific actions to allow unsubstantiated claims to be dismissed quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hegseth also wants officials to take into account the \u201cfavorable personnel actions\u201d of alleged offenders \u2014 meaning any promotions, awards, reenlistment, reassignment, or attendance at military or civilian schools \u2014\u00a0should it seem like a complaint against them is not likely to be substantiated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition, he asked for administrative and\/or disciplinary actions for personnel \u201cwho knowingly submit false complaints.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur personnel deserve fair treatment and a positive work environment free from unlawful discrimination and harassment,\u201d Jules Hurst, the acting under secretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, said in a statement accompanying the memo. \u201cThey also deserve qualified leaders who are empowered to make tough decisions, enforce standards, and restore good order and discipline through balanced accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed a rehaul of the Defense Department (DOD) programs meant for service members and civilian employees to report harassment and discrimination, claiming individuals have \u201cweaponized\u201d such avenues. Hegseth ordered each military department to review its military Equal Opportunity (EO) and civilian Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) programs, according to\u00a0a memo dated Thursday\u00a0and released Friday. Titled \u201cRestoring Good Order and Discipline Through Balanced Accountability,\u201d the review is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1016,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions\/1016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}