Posted on 10/20/2014 11:26:34 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Tens of thousands of federal workers are being kept on paid leave for at least a month — and often for longer stretches that can reach a year or more — while they wait to be punished for misbehavior or cleared and allowed to return to work, government records show.
During a three-year period that ended last fall, more than 57,000 employees were sent home for a month or longer. The tab for these workers exceeded $775 million in salary alone.
The extensive use of so-called administrative leave continues despite government personnel rules that limit paid leave for employees facing discipline to “rare circumstances” in which the employee is considered a threat. The long-standing rules were written in an effort to curb waste and deal quickly with workers accused of misconduct.
And the comptroller general, the top federal official responsible for auditing government finances and practices, has repeatedly ruled that federal workers should not be sidelined for long periods for any reason.
But a forthcoming report by the Government Accountability Office found that 53,000 civilian employees were kept home for one to three months during the three fiscal years that ended in September 2013. About 4,000 more were kept off the job for three months to a year and several hundred for one to three years. The study represents the first time auditors have calculated the scope and cost of administrative leave.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Paid leave. Wow, that’s harsh.
Fire 1/3 or every federal worker. Let the rest keep their largesse but mark them with a $ tattoo on their forehead.
The federal work force could be reduced by 50% easy and you wouldnt even notice a difference. This is make work for demorats
The scammers got in decades ago and now have risen to infiltrate the highest levels of the bureaucracy. This isn’t an error or even lower level abuse. The individuals taking extended leave likely aren’t being disciplined in any way other than bare minimum and only on paper if at that, check those records as well. It’s like the big bump in grade that those who are nearing retirement get to bump their pension as well, purely gaming the system for more money and the superior approve it because they will do the same. They don’t care, they’re getting theirs and collapsing the system all at the same time.
Small wonder we’re broke. In the real world there is no paid leave, not in mine, anyways. Maddening what the privileged get.
That’s 3,000 or so people.
Gosh, there’s nothing like that in the private sector.
“Hey, you screwed up. That’s the bad news.
The good news is you get to make new friends at your next job.
You are So Fired!”.
“Happy Days” are here for at least two more years.
I know Hugh Hewitt does not have a lot of fans on FR, but take heed. He used to work for the Office of Personnel Management, and claims that the way the rules are written now it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE to terminate a Federal employee for ANY reason.
Fixing that has to be Job One if we can get a Conservative majority.
Send the furloughed workers to screen for Ebola. No reason to hire new people.
What we really need to do is start a new massive federal bureaucracy who is paid to surf porn so they can establish proper legal guidelines for the same. < / sarcasm >
Not true. This regime would fire the 50% who actually do the work.
Nancy Pelosi comments on this: “These people are getting a chance to pursue their personal interests without the nasty uncertainty of unemployment, and the fact that they are not unemployed is helping to spur economic growth. A win-win for all of us!”
Sadly, Hugh is right. Two cases-in-point:
Lois Lerner. In a sane world, she would have been indicted for various crimes a year ago, and by this point, be awaiting trial or doing time in a federal pen. And despite the fact that she is still under investigation, Ms. Lerner was allowed to retire from the IRS with an annual pension of $110,000.
John Beale. Former senior EPA official, took every Friday off for years—without taking leave—claiming he was part of a CIA task force that met on that day at Langley. Also spent 6 months at his vacation home in Massachusetts while he was supposedly “deployed” to Afghanistan. Billed the government for trips to see family members in Los Angeles. Collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses he was not entitled to. Convicted and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, but still allowed to retire before his case went to trial. Annual pension believed to be more than $100K a year.
Here is another: Dale Jones, Top law enforcement officer at NOAA, Caught shredding case files of commercial fishermen who were charged exorbitant fines that went into a slush fund they used for luxury boats and foreign travel.
Punishment: lateral transfer and slight reduction in pay.
All the more reason to require a true conservative as president . Let the lefties have to vote republican for the conservative or stay home. I am tired of this lie that we have to have a McCain or Romney crammed down our throat and like it. Let them like our candidate or get out— No more Bushes— No romney— Been there done that. We need this government cleaned out!!
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