Federal Employees Paid to NOT Work?

Agencies Paid Hundreds of Employees to Not Work for at Least One Year

http://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2014/10/agencies-paid-hundreds-employees-not-work-least-one-year/96938/?oref=top-story

Federal agencies from fiscal 2011 to fiscal 2013 paid 263 employees at least one full year’s salary to sit on the sidelines and not work, and paid an additional 57,000 federal workers at least one month’s salary to stay home.

A Government Accountability Office report released on Monday found the government spent a total of $3.1 billion in the three-year period on salaries for employees on paid administrative leave, which is meant to be used primarily while investigating employees’ alleged misconduct. Of that total, agencies spent $700 million for employees on administrative leave for at least one month, and $31 million for employees paid to not work for at least one year.

There is no general statutory authority for the use of paid administrative leave, GAO said, but the auditing agency and the Office of Personnel Management have issued guidance to agencies to manage its use. OPM has provided examples for when administrative leave is appropriate, such as unavoidable tardiness of less than one hour, for hourly wage-grade employees and cases of adverse personnel actions. In the “rare circumstances” employees present a threat to the workplace, the possibility of damaging government property, or would “otherwise jeopardize legitimate government interests,” agencies can place the employees on paid administrative leave. Agencies often invoke their right to use this type of leave after providing advance notice of a suspension or firing.

Essentially, administrative leave allows agencies to take employees off the job without punishing them in a way that violates due process or is appealable to entities such as the Merit Systems Protection Board. This enables agencies to conduct investigations into alleged wrongdoing.

This has frequently drawn the ire of lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who say the policy allows malfeasant feds to take paid vacations while their cases are sifted through the bloated and bottlenecked federal bureaucracy. The GAO report was requested by Republican oversight leaders in Congress, namely Sens. Chuck Grassley, Iowa, and Tom Coburn, Okla., as well as Rep. Darrell Issa, Calif.

“The GAO report offers new details on the extent to which federal agencies are granting employees -- included those facing disciplinary action -- taxpayer-funded vacations for extended periods of time,” said Issa, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in a statement to Government Executive. “Gross overuse of paid administrative leave wastes taxpayer funds and underscores dysfunctional agency management that often prefers to dither on personnel problems rather than expeditiously resolve them.”

GAO was able to access administrative leave data through OPM’s Enterprise Human Resources Integration payroll system. OPM has never provided guidance on how to quantify admin leave, however, and agencies therefore use differing definitions. Some payroll providers, for example, count paid federal holidays as paid administrative leave. Others count paid absences specifically authorized by Congress -- including post-organ donation recovery, official time, attending law enforcement funerals and rehabilitation from injuries suffered while serving abroad -- as admin leave, even though OPM has said they should not be included in the tally.

After excluding federal holidays from the data, agencies provided employees with a total of 9.94 million days of paid administrative leave between fiscal years 2011 and 2013, or about five days per employee. About 3 percent of the federal workforce charged at least one month of administrative leave, while 69 employees charged between 1.5 and three years.

About 77 percent of the salary costs associated with paid admin leave went to employees who took 20 days or less. At an organization like the U.S. Agency for International Development, this could simply be the grace period relocated employees have to adjust to their new posts. Still, nearly one in four federal dollars spent on paid administrative leave went to long-term users, most likely those who were facing a negative action from their agency.

Other reasons agencies provided to GAO for authorizing administrative leave included physical-fitness related activities, vacation and professional development.

In its report, GAO called paid admin leave an important tool for agencies, but said it must be “managed effectively.” GAO also recommended OPM create governmentwide standards for administrative leave reporting, so the information does not lead to “decisions based on faulty conclusions that stem from inaccurate data.”  

OPM agreed to form a working group in 2015 to establish such guidance.  

What Have They done for History in America" Hospital? Charity? Schools? Civil Rights?

Here is a post that a loyal retired Vet posted on a forum that I was recently on. This Patriot makes a very good point and really gets one to thinking.

Recently folks were talking about "what Islam has and hasn't done for the world"......here is a great response!

Here ya go my friends, I just present this as a few FACTS not the misguided nonsense the "progressive LEFT" tries to feed us........
Have you ever seen a Muslim hospital?
Have you heard a Muslim orchestra?
Have you seen a Muslim band march in a parade?
Have you witnessed a Muslim charity?
Have you shaken hands with a Muslim Girl Scout?
Have you seen a Muslim Candy Striper?
The answer is no, you have not. Just ask yourself WHY ???
The President, during his Cairo speech, said: "I know, too,
that Islam has always been a part of America 's history."
AN AMERICAN CITIZEN'S RESPONSE

Dear Mr. Obama:

Were those Muslims that were in America when the Pilgrims first landed? Funny, I thought they were Native American Indians.

Were those Muslims that celebrated the first Thanksgiving day?

Sorry again, those were Pilgrims and Native American Indians.

Can you show me one Muslim signature on the: United States Constitution?  Declaration of Independence?  Bill of Rights?  Didn't think so.

Did Muslims fight for this country's freedom from England? No.

Did Muslims fight during the Civil War to free the slaves in America ?  No, they did not. 

In fact, Muslims to this day are still the largest traffickers in human slavery. Your own half-brother, a devout Muslim, still advocates slavery himself, even though Muslims of Arabic descent refer to black Muslims as "pug nosed slaves." Says a lot of what the Muslim world really thinks of your family's "rich Islamic heritage," doesn't it?

Where were Muslims during the Civil Rights era of this country?  Not present.  

There are no pictures or media accounts of Muslims walking side by side with Martin Luther King, Jr. or helping to advance the cause of Civil Rights.

Where were Muslims during this country's Woman's Suffrage era?  Again, not present. 

In fact, devout Muslims demand that women are subservient to men in the Islamic culture. So much so, that often they are beaten for not wearing the 'hijab' or for talking to a man who is not a direct family member or their husband. Yep, the Muslims are all for women's rights, aren't they?

Where were Muslims during World War II?  They were aligned with Adolf Hitler. 

The Muslim grand mufti himself met with Adolf
Hitler, reviewed the troops and accepted support from the Nazi's in killing Jews.

Finally, Mr. Obama, where were Muslims on Sept. 11th, 2001?
If they weren't flying planes into the World Trade Center , the Pentagon or a field in Pennsylvania killing nearly 3,000 people on our own soil, they were rejoicing in the Middle East . 

No one can dispute the pictures shown from all parts of the Muslim world celebrating on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and other cable news network's that day. 

Strangely, the very "moderate" Muslims who's asses you bent over backwards to kiss in Cairo , Egypt on June 4th were stone cold silent post 9-11. To many Americans, their silence has meant approval for the acts of that day.

And THAT, Mr. Obama, is the "rich heritage" Muslims have here in America ...

Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention the Barbary Pirates. They were Muslims.

And now we can add November 5, 2009 - the slaughter of American soldiers at Fort Hood.

Murdered by a Muslim US Officer, a Major who is a doctor and a psychiatrist who was supposed to be counseling young soldiers returning from battle in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Also, don't forget the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15.2013 was done by 2 Muslim Brothers. That, Mr. Obama is the "Muslim heritage" in America 

EVERY AMERICAN AND CANADIAN SHOULD READ THIS !!

Jerry B.

Does Global Warming Cause Murders

Governments ban weapons from honest citizens to beget such social mayhem to perpetuate the perceived need for increased governmental police action. 

Only naive, logically challenged, cognitively deficient (mentally disordered), and those with evil intentions of creating a defenseless and helpless population in the face of increasing authoritarianism and oppression by their governments advocate such a suicide pact.