Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa on Thursday again called on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to review its policies over potential abuses of the agency's remote work policy and “ongoing geographic pay fraud.”
In a letter to USAID Inspector General Paul K. Martin, Earnest cited an incident in which a USAID employee received a Washington, D.C.-area pay despite living permanently in Florida. An area pay is an adjustment to a federal employee's base pay intended to ensure that they are paid on par with civilian employees in a particular region of the country. (RELATED: Exclusive: Joni Ernst, Ted Cruz urge Biden administration to investigate 'abuse' of telework at Cabinet departments)
“It goes without saying that local pay fraud is certainly occurring at USAID,” Ernst wrote to Martin. “As a recent investigation revealed, not only did a GS-13 employee defraud taxpayers by using a false address for an office supply retailer in Virginia and accepting an inflated Washington, DC, local pay rate while living full-time in Florida, but he did so with the full knowledge and support of his superiors.”
The numbers don't lie, and we have the whistleblowers to prove it – Biden's United States Department of Agriculture Four years of teleworking policies have turned it into a ghost town.
Bureaucrats have to come to work or the unused space needs to be sold. pic.twitter.com/nUpNswG4LS
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) February 28, 2024
“As I'm sure you would agree, even one manager knowingly facilitating timecard fraud is too many,” Ernst continued. “Furthermore, any reasonable person would agree that it is, at best, highly improbable to allege that this GS-13 and her supervisor are the only employees engaging in this type of fraud. At the very least, I would like to see your office review the contracts of all other employees under this supervisor's jurisdiction to determine whether they are also defrauding taxpayers.”
Ernst said a significant percentage of employees Architect of the Capitol And that Department of Commerce The letter to Martin said the overpayments were made to employees working remotely. The USAID employee in question left the agency before the investigation was completed. according to Summary posted on the USAID website on April 30th.
In a letter sent to 24 government agencies in August 2023 calling for a review of issues related to remote working, Ernst told media account A VA employee attended a staff meeting while taking a bubble bath. Ernst also case An August 2015 report found that a United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) employee was paid $25,000 for spending more than 730 hours on the golf course and at happy hours. report According to the Commerce Department's Office of Inspector General.
“Across the federal government, inspector general offices evaluating this issue have found widespread locality pay fraud, fueled by telework arrangements that were arranged without sufficient guardrails or oversight,” Ernst wrote. “Notably, the Architect of the Capitol's Office of Inspector General's analysis of locality pay practices found that 80 percent of employees sampled received incorrect locality pay. In a second recent audit, the Commerce Department's Office of Inspector General found that roughly one-quarter of employees had been improperly overpaid because they received incorrect locality pay.” (Related: Senate passes Joni Ernst amendment to crack down on federal employees who abuse telework)
Senjoni Ernst and Scented Cruise Send a letter to the Department of Transport…
Posted: Exclusive: Joni Ernst, Ted Cruz demand investigation into telework 'abuse' in Biden administration Daily Caller https://t.co/91HJYg9mB5
— Harold Hutchison (@HaroldHutchison) June 18, 2024
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) memo released by Senator Ernst in December found that 24 agencies were using less than 50% of their office space. Senator Ernst said: How to Stop Counterproductive Work-From-Home Problems (SHOW UP)It came into force in September as part of a package of legislation aimed at curbing the “administrative state”.
“USAID bureaucrats have refused to budge, at the expense of taxpayers,” Ernst told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Federal employees should not be left wondering whether they're at work or relaxing on perpetual vacation on a beach 1,000 miles away. We need a thorough and transparent review of workplace policies and reset expectations to ensure that public servants show up to work and are paid accurately.”
USAID did not immediately respond to DCNF's request for comment.
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