Audit: FBI agents paid to watch movies and attend parties (in IRAQ)

Beerhunter · 12-19-2008, 09:10

http://govexec.com/story_page.cfm?ar...dcn=todaysnews

Audit: FBI agents paid to watch movies and attend partiesBy Lara Jakes Jordan, Associated Press December 18, 2008 WASHINGTON (AP) - 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 tasked with preparing evidence for court trials of Saddam Hussein and his associates.
"Maybe they needed extra poker players," said the unnamed supervisor.
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."
Since March 2003, the FBI has temporarily deployed 1,150 agents and other employees to Iraq, usually for three-month periods. Fine's investigators reviewed the time and attendance records for each.
Over the four-year period, the report found, the FBI spent $63 million in overtime and extra pay for employees in Iraq - $7.8 million of which was improperly billed.
In a statement, FBI Assistant Director John Miller said the now-defunct policy was only supposed to be a short-time pay solution in the early days of the war. He said managers at FBI headquarters "allowed a flawed system to develop and remain in place too long."
"FBI employees lived with sniper attacks, mortar fire, and roadside bombs as part of their daily work environment," Miller said. He said FBI managers "attempted to adapt a long established, domestic pay system for domestic law enforcement to unprecedented wartime assignments for FBI personnel."
Fine's investigation found that agents claimed at least eight hours of overtime a day, every day, for the three months they were stationed in Iraq. Until this year, FBI supervisors in the United States routinely approved the hours billed, despite having no personal knowledge of the time the agents were working.
The report also rapped the FBI for failing to maintain accurate records of overtime costs.
Similarly, FBI agents in Afghanistan also misused overtime and extra pay allowances, but to a lesser extent, the report found.
But FBI agents were not the only culprits, Fine concluded. Also misusing extra pay and attendance policies in Iraq and Afghanistan - but in a more limited way - were agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; The Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

ZonieDiver · 12-19-2008, 09:57

Ahhhh! "Slurping at the public trough" is what we used to call that!

**Pete** · 12-19-2008, 10:03

There are two ways to look at it.

Like being in the Army, at the end of your shift it's a little hard to "go home".

That would be like working in the states but having to sleep on the sofa in the office.

Should have just had inhanced pay for the area with no clock punching - you worked when you had to.

Richard · 12-19-2008, 10:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete

Should have just had inhanced pay for the area with no clock punching - you worked when you had to.

I agree with Pete--give them the hostile fire pay vs the >$$ of the more nebulous 'overtime' system. In '73 it was $65/month--more than Jump Pay at $55/month. Don't know what it is now...but I'd wager un testiculo izquierdo it would sure save the taxpayer a heap of wampum.

Richard's $.02

greenberetTFS · 12-19-2008, 12:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard

I agree with Pete--give them the hostile fire pay vs the >$$ of the more nebulous 'overtime' system. In '73 it was $65/month--more than Jump Pay at $55/month. Don't know what it is now...but I'd wager un testiculo izquierdo it would sure save the taxpayer a heap of wampum.

Richard's $.02

I completely agree with Pete and Richard. Makes more sense to give them hostile fire than OT. However, when I went in the Airborne in 1955 jump pay was $55/month and I believe it's still that for EM's. Can not understand that after 54 years it's still $55/month. I still would have gone Airborne regardless of whether I'd get jump pay or not,but don't you think that there should have been an increase by now?

GB TFS

**Pete** · 12-19-2008, 12:16

Man, you missed the $83 per month days? The $110 a month days?

odoylerules · 12-19-2008, 12:43

I'm uncomfortable speaking my opinions about the matter at hand on a public forum, but I wanted to point out that civil servants over here are not paid danger pay or over time, but rather that we are paid both over time and danger pay. On top of that, we get post-differential for being here.

Respectfully,
Doyle

Edited for readability.

SF_BHT · 12-19-2008, 13:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by odoylerules

I'm uncomfortable speaking my opinions about the matter at hand on a public forum, but I wanted to point out that civil servants over here are not paid danger pay or over time, but rather that we are paid both over time and danger pay. On top of that, we get post-differential for being here.

Respectfully,
Doyle

Edited for readability.

For years I did it for God and Country and Now I do it for God and Country but I Get Paid for it now.

You are right and the entitlements are a whole world different than the military. Can not compare the two.

Pete
In the military we look at it as defending the country but the Fed Employees, Agent, Intel, admin, etc do not look at it that way. Pay or No Play is their focus, it is just a job. I want to kill most of them. Hell I do not file for some of the overtime/Sunday Pay, Night Diff Pay, etc just because it is such a pain to do but most will not do one second of work without that extra compensation. The Government sets the rules not the employees and they just gain form some Civil Servant rules. Hell I would be tied up in Memos and forms for 80% of my time if I followed the rules like most do. They just think I am FK%$d in the Head.
Just my 2 cents from being on both sides of the fence.

Beerhunter · 12-19-2008, 13:43

"Saturday night cocktail party"- wonder how the Agency feels about the Bureau encrouching on their territory.

Didn't they just recently apply general order No#1 to civilians?

AngelsSix · 12-19-2008, 18:48

Last group back reports that GO1 has been rescinded and that there are even marraiges being conducted over there. Of course I have no way of verifying this, but I am sure that if you constantly threaten people and then do not follow up on your threats, people will do whatever the hell they want anyway. There was more booze and sex in Kirkuk when I was there than I saw in the dorms at home. You would have thought the world was coming to an end the way some of the folks over there were behaving...

One fine group of gents kept bringing a female in every Friday that stayed through Sunday until we pointed out that every vehicle coming in the gate was being recorded by the AF and that occupants were customarily noted and logged by us as well. Funny how some people think they can get away with anything.

odoylerules · 12-20-2008, 01:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by SF_BHT

For years I did it for God and Country and Now I do it for God and Country but I Get Paid for it now.

You are right and the entitlements are a whole world different than the military. Can not compare the two.

...Fed Employees, Agent, Intel, admin, etc do not look at it that way. Pay or No Play is their focus, it is just a job. I want to kill most of them. Hell I do not file for some of the overtime/Sunday Pay, Night Diff Pay, etc just because it is such a pain to do but most will not do one second of work without that extra compensation....

Roger all, and I'll come out and say the bigger thing eating at me is how much overtime some/a lot of people claim and don't work. That and how much they bitch about living conditions here. Don't get me wrong, it's not like the States but for being in a war zone, I live pretty damned well. People higher ranking than me (almost everyone) live even better, and folks in the International Zone DO live like they are basically in the United States, then some still bitch about how hard they have it.

Beerhunter,

I don't have documentation, but maybe someone smarter than I am can come along and corroborate what I'm saying. I believe General Order 1 always applied to Department of Defense civilians, but has never applied outside of the Department of Defense. I'm fairy certain State employees drink, and I imagine that outside of another order besides GO1, Justice employees are allowed to as well. But once again - I don't have anything to support what I just said, just the common understanding of people on the ground working over here. I haven't heard anything about General Order 1 being rescinded, which doesn't mean there isn't alcohol and cohabitation over here, but I also don't think it means that this is like a frat party environment. A guy I personally know got caught drinking, on this rotation, and went from being a SGT(P) to a PFC in the blink of an eye.

odoylerules · 12-20-2008, 01:38

Oh, and I wasn't drinking with that guy. Drinking over here, like I was saying, is still a big no-no and I don't want to lose my job.

I reread this thread and I got upset because when I became a federal employee, I felt the way SF BHT described, like I could make a difference and keep doing good for the defense of the country, even though the Army was through with me. But the way he described a lot of civil servants is really how it seems, and I haven't been here long enough to justify becoming jaded.

I guess I need to post less here, I'm at a total of four posts in one week I think and have been lucky to not step on my crank yet. I'm bound to embarrass myself eventually. This issue just really gets my blood boiling.

Richard · 12-20-2008, 07:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by SF_BHT

For years I did it for God and Country and Now I do it for God and Country but I Get Paid for it now.

Sounds like the old TM SGT mantra we young bucks heard back when--

"Been there...done it all...and I ain't doin' it again without max TDY!"

Richard's $.02

SF_BHT · 12-20-2008, 08:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard

Sounds like the old TM SGT mantra we young bucks heard back when--

"Been there...done it all...and I ain't doin' it again without max TDY!"

Richard's $.02

You are so right. Hay getting TDY is good and I have been so many places with out a cent but the ones thay paid TDY for were a lot mor memorable.

odoylerules

General Orders only apply to DoD military and DoD Civ's. A General can not issue orders to USDOJ, State or any other FED Gov Employee. Each agency would have to do a directive after the Lawyers reviewed it and guaranteed that no one could file a Lawsuit against them. Lawsuits are the driving factor in decisions. Civilians have rights and a job is just a job not a calling to defend the country. As we all knew when we swore in that we lost some rights and that is the difference.

just my 2 cents

JimP · 12-20-2008, 09:38

I'm torn on this - the times I was over there you couldn't get the Bureau to do a lot of things. The guys were good dudes and squared away but the bureaucrats back in the States wouldn't let them go out on ops or do what they were supposed to be doing. Too much of a risk-averse mentality. Some went outside the wire anyways but they were putting their career on the line. I don't have an issue with the $$ they made but they should have been provided an opportunity to earn it.