GAO: BLM headquarters vacancies more than doubled with move

By DENNIS WEBB
Grand Junction Sentinel

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — The number of vacant Bureau of Land Management headquarters positions more than doubled as the agency moved those jobs to Grand Junction and other locations in the West, before declining somewhat but not to the prior level, a new Government Accountability Office report has found. The report points to impacts in decision-making due to the loss of headquarters and experienced staff during organizational changes the agency made after 2016. It also identifies decreased representation of some races and ethnicities within the headquarters and/or agency in recent years, but also gains in representation of some groups, The Grand Junction Sentinel reports.