EPA employees getting millions of dollars in extra time off

The Environmental Protection Agency is circumventing rules meant to provide oversight of performance bonuses by adding vacation days to cash awards, according to an audit. The news site Government Executive reports the rules require that bonuses of more than $5,000 a year be approved by senior officials. So those mid-level managers simply handed out $5,000 bonuses and then added vacation days. The Government Executive report said the EPA "awarded more than 355,000 hours off to employees in 2015 through 2017, the equivalent of 170 full-time positions and nearly $20 million." The EPA inspector general found, according to the report, "the agency was regularly giving cash awards up to that limit and adding time off on top of it." The system worked this way, the report said, "A supervisor could propose a $5,001 bonus for an employee ... and it would go to a senior official for approval. The same supervisor could propose a $5,000 and 40 hours off, meanwhile, and it would receive no further review."...MORE