# Prohibited Personnel Practice A **prohibited personnel practice** is one of the acts enumerated at **5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)** that a federal official with personnel authority may not take, threaten, or fail to take. The list includes discrimination, soliciting improper recommendations, nepotism, obstructing competition, and — the provision that carries the whistleblower system — **§ 2302(b)(8)**, retaliation for a protected disclosure. The PPP is the legal object the [[Office of Special Counsel]] investigates and the [[Merit Systems Protection Board]] adjudicates. It is also the borrowed enforcement mechanism for rights stated elsewhere without remedies of their own: interference with an employee's 5 U.S.C. § 7211 right to furnish information to Congress is reachable, if at all, by re-characterising it as a PPP. Created by the [[Civil Service Reform Act of 1978]] and expanded by the [[Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989]] and the [[Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012]]. This is a stub — expand with the full § 2302(b) enumeration, the definition of "personnel action," and the contributing-factor burden. ## See also - [[Federal Whistleblower Protection Crosswalk]] - [[Individual Right of Action]] - [[Federal Workforce Structure Tree]]