O’Rourke led the Office of Accountability & Whistleblower Protection at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for eight months.
During that period, federal auditors said, there were no clear policies or procedures to protect the identities of whistleblowers. “The very office established to protect whistleblowers and enhance accountability lacked the basic structures needed to achieve its core mission,” the report from the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General said.
O’Rourke was appointed by the president to lead the office in June 2017 and left the position in February 2018.
More than a year later, Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed him to take over as executive director of the Florida’s GOP ahead of the 2020 elections, when Trump will be at the top of the ticket.
In an August news release, Florida Republican Chairman Joe Gruters, a state senator from Sarasota, said O’Rourke was picked because he “brings significant political and managerial experience” to the party.“President Donald Trump fully endorses Peter assuming leadership over the RPOF, as does Gov. DeSantis,” Gruters said in the August statement.
The inspector general report issued Thursday made a series of recommendations, which the Veterans Administration promised to address, including doing more to protect whistleblower anonymity.
The report said that “there are significant steps that must be taken to restore the trust of whistleblowers and other complainants due to missteps and a culture set by former leaders who did not appear to value their contributions.”
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This article appears in Oct 24-31, 2019.