updated 3:14 p.m. ET, Thurs., Dec. 18, 2008
WASHINGTON - Taxpayers were billed an average of $45,000 in overtime and extra pay for each FBI agent temporarily posted to Iraq over the course of four years, according to a new Justice Department report. In some cases, agents were paid to watch movies, exercise and attend parties.
In all, the audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found the FBI racked up $7.8 million in improper wages between 2003 and 2007.
Thursday's report blamed a faulty FBI policy that allowed agents to claim the extra time and money. An FBI spokesman said that policy "? which initially sought to enlist volunteers to go to dangerous war zones "? is no longer in place....
Several FBI employees noted that they periodically spent time during the work day washing clothes," the report noted. Asked whether he should have been paid for the time spent in this activity, one employee defended the practice, saying, "'When you're in that environment, anything you do to survive is work for the FBI.'"
Other agents defended being paid to go to a regular Saturday night cocktail party, calling it an important "liaison" meeting. And in another case, one supervisor said he "had to laugh" when he saw how many agents were assigned to the office charged with preparing evidence for court trials of Saddam Hussein and his associates.
"Maybe they needed extra poker players," said the unnamed supervisor.
16 hours a day?
The report concluded: "We found that, on the whole, few if any employees worked exactly 16 hours a day, every day, for 90 days straight, within the meaning of the term 'work' as it is used in applicable regulations and policies."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28299590/
Bookmarks