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EPA employees getting millions of dollars in extra time off

Agency 'awarded more than 355,000 hours off 2015 through 2017'

By WND Staff    Published January 12, 2020 at 7:14pm

The Environmental Protection Agency is circumventing rules meant to provide oversight of performance bonuses by adding vacation days to cash awards, according to an audit.

The news site Government Executive reports the rules require that bonuses of more than $5,000 a year be approved by senior officials.

So those mid-level managers simply handed out $5,000 bonuses and then added vacation days.

The Government Executive report said the EPA "awarded more than 355,000 hours off to employees in 2015 through 2017, the equivalent of 170 full-time positions and nearly $20 million."

The EPA inspector general found, according to the report, "the agency was regularly giving cash awards up to that limit and adding time off on top of it."

"EPA officials made no effort to calculate the value of the time off and therefore did not send those combined awards up the chain for further approval."

The agency's inspector general found: "The number of time-off hours awarded each year results in lost productivity because top performers may not be at work, which can adversely impact the agency’s mission."

The system worked this way, the report said, "A supervisor could propose a $5,001 bonus for an employee ... and it would go to a senior official for approval. The same supervisor could propose a $5,000 and 40 hours off, meanwhile, and it would receive no further review."

A review of a random 50 awards that went to 23 workers found the value was more than $5,000 for 13 of the employees.

The extra perks varied by location and rank, with headquarters workers and those at a GS-14 rank and above getting a high share of the benefits.

The report said the agency also refused to follow the IG's recommendation to determine the value of time off and incorporate that into the records.

Read the full article at WND's site