Article snippet: Almost 30 senior employees based at the Interior Department's headquarters in climate change. But in a report out Wednesday, the Interior Department's internal watchdog that investigated the claims said it could not determine if the moves violated federal guidelines because the board that reassigned senior employees did not keep proper records documenting its decisions. The Union of Concerned Scientists, which has been outspoken about allegations of retaliation against researchers, said in a statement that the board's conduct is indefensible. “This goes beyond mere incompetence. It’s absolutely unacceptable for political appointees to take this action without leaving a public record or any attempt to explain why dedicated public servants are being treated this way," the group's director Andrew Rosenberg said in the statement. The top Democrat on the committee with oversight of Interior, one of the senators who requested the investigation, called the findings "one more screw-up at taxpayer expense" at the department. "Reassignment in this case just means it's easier for political operatives at Interior to circumvent the law," Sen. said in a statement. Cantwell and other Democrats on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee asked the inspector general to look into the reassignments. The employees were in a category called the Senior Executive Service and can be reassigned but in this case, the inspector general found that the department did not ... Link to the full article to read more