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EEO officials, particularly full-time staff, serve as technical advisors to the Office of Personnel Administration (OPersA). However, EEO Counselors do get problems which are personal in nature, rather than EEO. Counselors refer such problems to the responsible OPersA official and follow-up later to see if any action was taken. There is usually no difficulty in determining which office has jurisdiction.

II. [[underline]] Discrimination Complaint [[/underline]]

There are eighteen CSC trained counselors located throughout the various museums and geographical areas where the entities of the Smithsonian Institution are located. Employees may arrange for counseling at any time and may contact counselors other than those located within the locations where they are employed.

All counselors have access to the head counselor, EEO officers and the Director of OEO which gives them adequate delegation to resolve the matters brought to their attention. The individuals previously mentioned are the ones involved in evaluation discussions relating to the respective counselor and his or her duty performance.

In the complaint process procedure itself, there is a time-consuming factor: scheduling appointments with the involved persons and compiling the information so that a fair and logical decision may be reached. Although the process is under agency control, the time elements mentioned sometimes make for a longer period of time to elapse before a decision is reached. The investigators utilized by the Smithsonian Institution are trained persons from the Civil Service Commission and all EEO officers have sufficient delegations to prepare dispositions. Reviews of each EEO decision are made by the Director of Equal Opportunity. Once a month a complaint report is submitted to the alleged discriminating official's organizational Executive Committee member. Copies of these reports are also sent to the Assistant Secretary for Administration as well as to the Secretary.

One problem that has arisen as a result of the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act is the increased number of employee requests for copies of documents contained in their folders. This has placed an increased workload on the Office of Personnel Administration, but arrangements are being made to handle the extra work for a minimum fee.