Administrative leave policies abused

U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) has released the latest example in a monthly series highlighting Washington’s wasteful spending during a time of record debt:

An Oct. 17 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reveals that many federal agencies have abused the lack of clear guidelines regarding “administrative leave” to pay their employees not to work for long periods of time.

The report found that more than 57,000 federal employees were placed on paid administrative leave for a month or longer in fiscal years 2011 through 2013—including 4,000 that were on administrative leave for three to twelve months, and 263 from one to three years.

Unlike medical, family, or vacation leave, most of these employees were placed on paid administrative leave for “alleged misconduct or criminal activities, physical fitness activities, and rest and recuperation for overseas employees.”

While waiting at home for allegations of misconduct to be resolved, the employees received regular pay and further accrued time toward their pension and (official) vacation opportunities.

This backward incentives system has translated to big paydays and long vacations, costing taxpayers $700 million—over $12,000 per employee.

Even persons of authority have abused the paid-leave system to avoid dealing with colleagues who criticize them. As the Washington Post reported, a Department of Interior employee who purportedly criticized agency environmental policies was placed on paid administrative leave because “[her bosses] didn’t want to deal with her.” A later investigation ruled in her favor.

“Paid administrative leave is an important way to investigate alleged employee misbehavior in an innocent-until-proven-guilty environment,” Portman said. “But frivolous and unnecessarily-long investigations turn the process into a lengthy paid vacation at taxpayer expense.”

And the examples are not limited to lower-and-middle ranking employees: senior IRS official Lois Lerner received four months of paid administrative leave (at which point she retired) to avoid disciplinary action for allegedly targeting political opponents. The former acting Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security continues to receive administrative leave payments after being accused of omitting information on the Secret Service prostitution scandal in 2012, as well as delaying his reports to protect senior administration officials in 2014.

Back in 2002, the Department of Justice decided to limit paid administrative leave to ten workdays unless otherwise approved by the assistant Attorney General, yet other departments and agencies did not follow suit, costing taxpayers billions. Thus, GAO’s new report urges the Office of Personnel Management to develop new guidance regarding the recording and reporting of paid administrative leave – a commonsense idea that should have been widely implemented long ago.