nep·o·tism
Noun: The practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends, esp. by giving them jobs.

The  US Department of Justice is charged with enforcement of federal laws.  Yet, it seems that some in the DOJ think that laws do not apply to them.  At least that was the finding of the Inspector General when it comes to  the ban against nepotism. The IG found 7 cases of nepotism. But this is  not the 1st time either the DOJ has been caught breaking the nepotism  code.

The  Justice Department’s inspector general found at least seven instances  of federal employees engaging in illegal attempts to hire family members  at the agency, according to a report issued Thursday.

The report  is the third investigation in less than a decade that has found  numerous examples of illegal hiring practices, amounting to nepotism,  within the DOJ.

The IG’s report found seven examples of employees  within the DOJ’s Justice Management Division (JMD) attempting to hire  the family members of their fellow employees.

According to the  IG’s report, in two separate instances a pair of employees, who worked  in different sections of the DOJ, engaged in schemes to hire the other’s  child. In another example, a DOJ employee tried to secure employment  for his cousin and nephew.

The IG released two prior reports on  nepotistic hiring practices in 2004 and again in 2008, in which they  found that employees manipulated the DOJ’s hiring process to favor  certain candidates.

In 2008, the IG recommended that the  department conduct ethics training and establish a “zero-tolerance”  policy for future attempts at illegal hiring. 

In a memorandum  issued earlier this week, Assistant Attorney General for Administration  Lee Lofthus wrote the IG to say that he would strengthen and clarify  training for employees, with particular attention on the agency’s  nepotism rules.

Lofthus also said that by Friday his office would  be implementing a three-prong set of disclosure forms that would  require DOJ employees to disclose any family member who they are aware  of applying for a job within the agency. It would also require any DOJ  applicant to reveal a family member who works for the department.

Lofthus  said, according to the IG report, the actions of illegal hiring were a  result of intentionally “bad behavior” and not ignorance of the rules or  a lack of training on the DOJ’s part.

“The OIG report concludes  by saying most of the misconduct identified in the report did not stem  from ignorance of the rules, but rather was the result of bad behavior  by individuals insufficiently impressed with the principles of fair and  open competition.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/240533-ig-report-finds-nepotism-at-justice-department

From  the Cornfield, following the 2008 finding, this should be a moot issue.  One would think that the top law enforcement division of the US  government would set an example of following the law.