WASHINGTON -- The State Department's inspector general has found ``insufficient credible evidence'' that managers at the Office of Cuba Broadcasting retaliated against five employees who challenged the managers' personnel or editorial decisions.
Wrapping up an inquiry that stretches back more than three years and highlights the acrimony at Radio and TV Marti, the inspector general discounted the allegations by a senior manager and four research analysts that they had been unfairly punished.
``The inspector general, after a thorough examination of all available evidence pertaining to the specific allegations, found that there was insufficient credible evidence to support the allegations of reprisals lodged by these employees,'' the inspector general's office said Monday in a statement.
The inspector general, Jacquelyn Williams-Bridgers, nevertheless found ``a pattern of personnel mismanagement,'' including deficiencies in procedures for hiring, documenting duties and reassigning staff, the report said.
And the inspector general's office announced it is now conducting a review of Radio Marti's policies for ensuring that the content of broadcasts to Cuba adheres to U.S. government standards for objectivity and balance, a concern underscored by the employees' allegations.
The results of the probe marked a turning point in a long-simmering controversy that has ignited tempers on both sides of the issue in Congress, put the former inspector general of the United States Information Agency under fire and fueled tensions between two presidential appointees: Jorge Mas Canosa, chairman of the President's Advisory Board for Broadcasting to Cuba, and David Burke, chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
Blew the whistle
The investigation, which covered 1992-94, stemmed from charges by Radio Marti Deputy Director Bruce Sherman that he was stripped of his responsibilities after he blew the whistle over, among other things, the hiring of an assistant news director whom he viewed as unqualified and a political surrogate for Mas Canosa, an exile leader.
Four Radio Marti research analysts -- Jose Alonso, Lillian Cabrera, Olga Nazario and Ricardo Planas -- then accused the station's managers of trying to silence their complaints of politicization and mismanagement by eliminating their jobs under the guise of downsizing.
In her report, Williams-Bridgers found that Sherman's problems with management predated his complaint to the inspector general of the USIA. Similarly, she cleared the way for the analysts' jobs to be cut, saying managers had made a strong case that the move was justified by savings.
The State Department inspector general's office took over the probe after its counterpart office at the USIA was dissolved last year by budget cuts. Then-USIA inspector general, Marian Bennett, had touched off a political firestorm in 1995, when she released partial results of her investigation to lawmakers. Mas Canosa and Rolando Bonachea, acting director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, refused to cooperate with her, alleging bias.
Mas Canosa, who is also chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation, claimed victory Monday.
``I am extremely grateful for what can be described as nothing less than a vindication and exoneration of the management of OCB in what was clearly a politically motivated dispute,'' Mas Canosa said.
`Undue influences'
``I am satisfied that the truth has prevailed and that the unsubstantiated allegations made about my role as chairman of the [president's advisory board] have been categorically rejected.''
Burke, whose oversight responsibilities include all foreign broadcasts, last year denounced ``undue influences'' by Cuban exile leaders over the stations and said they were treated like political organizations. Burke hired Sherman after he left Radio Marti.
On Monday, Burke released a statement saying, ``My BBG colleagues and I are committed to respond to the [inspector general's] findings by ensuring that the necessary reforms are implemented and management sufficiently strengthened in response to this report.''
Signaling continuing friction over the stations, Burke rebuffed efforts by the White House Monday to sign on to a letter by Joseph Duffey, the USIA director, calling on ``all sides . . . to put aside a contentiousness that only distracts us from our central task.''
Copyright © 1997 The Miami Herald