EPA Gave Paid Leave to Drug and Child Sex Offenders

Drug and child sex offenders received paid administrative leave from the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a new audit. The agency’s inspector general found the EPA rehired a child sex offender after they were put on leave for violating probation, in one example of misuse of administrative leave that cost taxpayers over $1 million. One employee, who confessed to “knowingly and intentionally engaging in sexual contact with a child younger than 17 years” in the 1990s, received paid administrative leave after they were arrested for a probation violation in August 2013. Another employee was placed on paid administrative leave for seven months after being arrested for marijuana possession.In another case, it took two years for an employee to receive a two-week suspension for “lack of candor.” The employee was placed on administrative leave in January 2012, and did not return to work until January 2014, racking up 3,561 hours of administrative leave. In all, the eight employees recorded 20,926 hours of administrative leave, costing the government an estimated $1,096,868...more