By Anika Gupta
Federal agencies cut the average time it takes to process equal employment opportunity complaints to 186 days in fiscal 2006, down from 237 days the year before, according to a new report from the agency responsible for enforcing laws against workplace discrimination.
Despite the overall improvement, less than a third of the profiled agencies had average investigation completion times shorter than 180 days, according to the 2006 Annual Report on the Federal Workforce, released by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission late last week. Federal law requires that all agency investigations be finished within 180 days.
Within the commission, which handles hearings and appeals on EEO complaints that can't be resolved by agency investigations, processing times and the case backlog have risen since fiscal 2005, the report stated. It cited staffing pressures and inadequate complaint monitoring systems as barriers to more efficient processing.
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