Harassment complaints nearly tripled at the State Department under the watch of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, according to a State Department watchdog report released Thursday.
The Washington Times reports that harassment complaints hit 88 formal claims during Clinton’s third year at State in 2011. This number jumped to 248 formal claims just three years later in 2014 with Kerry serving as secretary. Hundreds more informal harassment complaints were also filed during this time.
Last year, more than one-third, or 38 percent of complaints filed by employees, dealt with sex discrimination or reprisals. An additional 43 percent of complaints were made up of alleged harassment dealing with unfair hiring or promotions.
Despite the spike in harassment claims at the State Department, there is no mandatory training program in place dealing with the issue.
"A significant increase in reported harassment inquiries in the Department of State over the past few fiscal years supports the need for mandatory harassment training," the department’s inspector general said.
Due to the department’s non-existent mandatory harassment training programs, one of the biggest recommendations includes periodic training for every employee at the State Department.
"The Office of Civil Rights, in coordination with the Bureau of Human Resources and the Foreign Service Institute, should mandate periodic harassment training for all Department employees," the report stated.