Former GSA official Prouty fights back against firing

The former Public Buildings Service Region 8 commissioner filed an appeal with the Merit Systems Protection Board against GSA for wrongful termination.

Paul Prouty, one of the General Services Administration’s officials caught up in the Western Regions Conference scandal, is fighting back against the agency for firing him.

Prouty, the former Rocky Mountain Region 8 commissioner for the GSA’s Public Buildings Service, filed an appeal with the Merit Systems Protection Board June 28, sources confirm to Federal News Radio.

Prouty’s attorney Bill Bransford, a partner with Shaw Bransford and Roth, declined to comment on the appeal.

Sources say Prouty could be one of several former GSA officials, who lost their jobs because of the conference debacle, who are filing an appeal with MSPB.

GSA fired Prouty, who spent 41 years in government, earlier this summer. The agency suspended him in April after allegations of waste and abuse surfaced about the now infamous 2010 conference near Las Vegas. Brian Miller, the GSA inspector general, found PBS spent $824,000 on the training conference.

When a federal employee files an appeal with MSPB, an administrative judge reviews the case, typically the appellant presents their case during a hearing, and then the judge decides the case. Should the judge rule against the appellant, they can file an appeal to the three-member MSPB board within 35 days.

In the MSPB handbook, the agency says it tries to resolve cases within 120 days.

Shaw Bransford & Roth hosts a weekly show on Federal News Radio.

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