The Government Accountability Office released a report Wednesday that said 116 Department of Homeland Security officials were put on paid leave for a year or more between 2011 and 2015, which cost taxpayers $19.8 million in salaries.
GAO said 69 of the 116 workers, or 59 percent, were on leave for “matters related to misconduct,” but were still paid over their leave of absence.
The report said 28 workers were put on leave for “matters related to fitness for duty issues,” and another 19 were on leave for reasons related to security clearance investigations.
“[I]n one particularly long and complex misconduct investigation, an employee was on administrative leave for over 2 years while investigating officials conducted over 50 interviews abroad,” the report said.
GAO noted another case where “a law enforcement agent at a DHS component had been on administrative leave for over 3 years while under investigation for allegations of criminal and administrative misconduct.”
“While on administrative leave, the employee received an estimated $455,000 in salary and benefits, according to DHS.”
As a result of the study, GAO recommended that DHS “evaluate the results of its administrative leave policy and share the evaluation results with the department’s components.”
