A federal employee last year received $25,500, or over four months of pay, for work he didn’t do, and his manager failed to notice anything until an anonymous whistleblower left a letter saying the employee “never shows up to work” and produces “garbage.”
While the unnamed official from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office claimed to be working hundreds of hours, “there was no evidence” he went to the office or used his government-issued laptop at all, according to an investigation by USPTO’s acting inspector general.
When the examiner did show up for work, he’d leave early to play golf, pool or socialize. Patent applicants and attorneys complained many times that they could not reach the employee by phone or email.
The employee quit two hours before he was to meet with the inspector general’s office on advice he received from a union representative, IM chats from the employee reveal. The employee was told if he resigned his personnel record would not show he was under investigation for falsifying his attendance.
In tallying the full number of hours the employee defrauded the government for, investigators said they gave “the benefit of the doubt … [and] likely gave him credit for many hours that he did not work.”
The employee’s work performance had earned him nine oral and written performance warnings, and the lowest possible rating for the past three years, but despite all this, his boss failed to notice the employee’s blatant “time and attendance abuse,” the acting inspector general found.
The 27-page report details numerous “red flags” that should have caused the managers to initiate a time and performance review on this employee. One of his supervisors stated that he would occasionally stop by the employee’s office, and sometimes “he’d be in there. Sometimes he wouldn’t be in there.”
The federal government’s flexible telework arrangement allowed this employee to work from home some of the time. One of his supervisors worked from home more than 30 hours a week.
This employee’s “actions raise concerns about whether the agency’s internal controls to prevent such misconduct are adequate and function properly,” reported investigators.
This unnamed patent examiner also admitted on 13 separate instances that he had engaged in “work credit abuse.” He did this “in order to avoid written or oral warnings for production or docket management deficiencies, to avoid safety zone notices (i.e. notice that an examiner is close to receiving a warning in one of the PAP elements), or to become eligible to receive an award,” the report notes.
This investigation follows on a finding last year that 8,300 patent examiners lied repeatedly about the hours they were working, and received bonuses for work they didn’t do. “An internal investigation prompted by multiple whistleblower complaints found evidence that few cheaters were disciplined for fraud, and a culture where union rules allowed supervisors limited oversight over their employees,” reported the Washington Post.
The inspector general recommended that the patent office consider legal options for recovering the $25,500 paid to the employee for hours he did not work. Officials with the patent office confirmed they are considering those options.
