Posted on 07/03/2016 8:59:53 AM PDT by Kaslin
Our federal government suffers from lack of focus trying to do too many things while doing too many poorly. This behemoth allows for huge waste that gets buried in the apathy bred by the very definition of what happens when you are spending OPM (other people’s money). The GAO (Government Accountability Office) recently released a report about administrative leave in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that boggles the mind. Though the Washington Post covered the story, my inner soul told me as staggering as their report was they still were probably doing an inadequate job. Thus, I dug in to find the real story of how our money is being abused.
The report was written by a team lead by Andrew Von Ah, the acting director of Homeland Security and Justice at the GAO. Mr. Von Ah was surprisingly responsive for a federal government employee. We connected a couple of times allowing me to address some of my insights from the 34-page report. The report focused only on administrative leave for the DHS. Administrative leave is defined as any paid leave that is not sick leave or vacation leave. What alarmed people was that, over the five years of the study (from 2011-2015), 116 DHS employees were on administrative leave for more than a year costing us over $19.8 million. From all appearances the agency did not have discernible consistent controls over how people were put on admin leave nor how long they stayed on leave.
Depending on the department and the length of service, each federal employee receives substantial sick leave and vacation leave every pay period which consists of two weeks or 26 paychecks a year. Each period they get 4 to 8 hours of both sick and vacation leave which accrues. That means some employees are receiving 7.8 weeks of vacation each year.
What I discovered was that there is a program in the federal government called “voluntary leave transfer.” If someone has used up either their sick or vacation leave and needs additional leave for personal or medical emergency, they may receive vacation leave transferred from a fellow employee. That leaves the program open to people manipulating it if they have some expiring vacation leave they can give it to someone else who might swap some back to them at a further time. Fascinating concept.
Though the study did not focus on anything other than admin leave, we do not know how long any federal employees were out for extended periods on other types of leaves. GAO’s study did not cover that. For the entire federal government there were 4,281 people on admin leave for longer than three months during the fiscal years 2011 through 2013. This is about 2% of all federal employees.
Though the Post and other outlets focused on the cost of the 116 employees out for over a year, that is just a portion of the admin leave during the period under study. During the four-year period of 2011 through 2014, there were 443 DHS employees out for 3-6 months, 219 for 6 -12 months, and then the ones over a year. So the amount of $19.8 million spent for employees out for over a year doing nothing and allowed to do nothing is just a portion of the cost, and this is just one department of the federal government.
What Von Ah told me was that there previously was no DHS-wide policy on how to control admin leave within the department. That means that the Secret Service and U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection all had their own rules for admin leave along with the multiple other divisions within DHS. Again -- that is just one department. Another interesting point was that a low level supervisor had the ability to place an employee on admin leave with little review of the process up the line of management.
The reasons for the leave as stated in the report fell into three categories: Misconduct, fitness for duty and security clearance. Of the 116 that were on leave for over a year, 68 were let go and the remainder were either reinstated or in limbo.
These leaves can run into huge costs with one employee being out for over three years at a cost of $455,000 and another at $340,000. This does not include the cost of investigation regarding why they were put on leave in the first place.
The good news is that this system that was running amok without any great concern or accountability is changing. Due to this report now each bureau or division head within the department must approve themselves or through an assignee any admin leave over one month. I would suggest the Secretary of the DHS should personally approve any leave over three months. Congress is looking at legislation that would tighten these rules by statute.
As stated previously, the fact that these leaves go on for so long is because OPM is involved, and that does not mean the Office of Personnel Management. If this were the management’s own dough they would be a lot more forceful. At least for now one department is making progress on one waste issue. Now we need to have a few more.
Homeland security has been hyjacked by muslims
Federal Government STILL Out of Control
When, in modern times, was it ever in control?
I don't fault anyone for this one. When I was at the CDC, I saw this happen from time to time. The recipients are usually people who need time off for cancer treatments, or people who's homes have been leveled due to fire or flood. I never saw it abused.
Please define “modern times,” give me some dates.
Uh huh. "Whatever you do DO NOT let that Laz guy know or we are ALL in the shat."
I was not aware that any leave “expires,” and I was a federal employee.
I’d peg it at post-Civil War, but certainly Fedzilla has been out of control since 1913.
I knew it. It was a damned conspiracy.
Why am I always the last to know???
The creation of DHS was another Bush FUBAR fuster-cluck. I hope Trump dissolves the DHS and privatizes the TSA with retired veterans.
Bingo! The year the “Fed” was created, income tax was instituted, and direct election of senators was initiated, Correct?
I have never seen this program abused. In the last year, I have assisted two employees in participating in this program, both for medical purposes. In my experience, the person requesting the leave transfer must provide documentation from their doctor to support the request, and then the request goes to a leave transfer coordinator who has to approve the request. Once approved, other employees can donate their unused leave. Any donated leave that is not used is returned to the donor on a pro-rated basis.
Several years ago, when I was in university, one of the admin staff had a daughter dying of cancer. People donated leave so that she could be with her daughter until the end. In this case, the leave donation program was state, not federal.
I admit you are usually right on top of it but in this case you were right on top of it which makes it hard to see see?
Yes, that is when Fedzilla completely broke out of its Constitutional cage.
you got it correct. STILL out of control and it won’t end until it is forced to stop.
Within living memory and then some.
With a possible short break to fight WWII.
Remember, Government Employees are sacrificing by taking Public Service Jobs.
They could be making a much better living in the Private Sector, but they choose to suffer for the Public good.
They are giving of themselves to work for you, the American People.
It’s a shame the Taxpayers don’t appreciate their sacrifice.
We have always been at War with Eastasia. That is all.
Then you were uninformed. The maximum annual leave than can be carried over from one year to the next is 240 hours. Anything beyond this is forfeited.
I was not aware that any leave “expires,” and I was a federal employee.
Oops, didn’t see your comment before posting mine.
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