NCUA Executive OrderedReinstated

WASHINGTON - (08/05/05) -- A federal appeals court Wednesdayordered NCUA to reinstate a long-time executive for impropertermination in 2000 and ordered the federal agency to pay him asmuch as $1 million in back pay. In its ruling, the U.S. Court ofAppeals for the Federal Circuit said Tim McCollum, who worked forNCUA for more than 20 years, the last 10 as top deputy in SoutheastRegion Three, was improperly terminated after he rejected arelocation to the West Coast Region Six. Under NCUA rules, McCollumsubmitted his retirement after rejecting the move. But NCUA did notproperly acknowledge McCollum's retirement, the appeals courtruled. The court did not rule on McCollum's charges that hisrelocation was retribution for him being a whistle blower in theagency's hiring scandal in the late 1990's. McCollum claimed he wasrelocated because he contacted the Inspector General's office andimplicated then-NCUA Board member Yolanda Wheat and ExecutiveDirector Carolyn Jordan in the scandal, in which racial minoritiesand women were found to have been given illegal preference for NCUAjobs. The court sent that question back to the Merit SystemsProtection Board, which adjudicates federal worker claims. An NCUAspokesman would not comment on the case because it had beenremanded to the merit board and has not been concludedyet.