ATF Wasted At Least $20 Million in Taxpayer Funds by “Intentionally” Misclassifying Positions: OSC
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) wasted millions of taxpayer dollars by “systematically and intentionally” misclassifying positions.
That’s according to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which just disclosed the situation and said it has alerted President Biden and Congress of “substantial waste, mismanagement and unlawful employment practices” involving high-level jobs at ATF.
Whistleblower Investigation
The investigation began after two whistleblowers disclosed to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) that ATF was unlawfully paying law enforcement pay and benefits to agents who were actually in non-law enforcement positions, such as human resources.
In its report, OSC substantiated the allegations, noting that 108 employees in non-law enforcement jobs were improperly provided Law Enforcement Availability Pay (LEAP) and enhanced retirement benefits.
OSC says the misclassification resulted in ATF overpaying agents by up to $20 million over a five-year-period. The actual cost could be much higher since the review only covered the years 2016-2021 and the misclassifications were a “common practice at ATF far longer than the five-year time frame reviewed by investigators.”
OPM Probe
Once confronted with the allegations, OSC referred the allegations to ATF, who deferred them to an ongoing Office of Personnel Management (OPM) audit.
OPM found that ATF acted “outside of merit system principles and demonstrated disregard for the rule of law and regulations that implement Federal human capital management policies and practices.”
As of March 2023, 36 of the misclassified employees have been reassigned while another 14 retired.
OPM also suspended ATF's authority to classify federal law enforcement positions and ATF’s Internal Affairs Division is also investigating why the illegal policies and practices were implemented in the first place.
“While I find the report to be reasonable, progress toward full resolution has been slow, which may be attributable to the long-standing nature of the problems and the entrenched culture reinforcing ATF's practices. I am pleased that OPM continues to monitor progress in implementing required corrective actions, and I urge ATF's internal affairs to hold the responsible parties accountable,” said Special Counsel Henry J. Kerner.
Still, questions remain. Both whistleblowers said the OSC report and the OPM audit don’t fully capture the “extent of ATF’s illegal practices.”
“The whistleblowers believed that there were many more misclassified positions than were captured in the audit and that the agency significantly underreported the waste directly and tangentially associated with the widespread practice of misclassifying positions,” wrote Special Counsel Kerner. “Moreover, they pointed out that the agency did not account for the impact of the wrongdoing on the agency’s non-law enforcement employees.”