Energy Department cuts payments to 4 federal lab workers
Source: washington post
Four high-ranking federal lab workers found a way to turn “per diem” funds for a temporary assignment into a steady flow of extra income — at taxpayers’ expense. The overpayments, discovered in an inspector general’s audit, boosted the annual pay of some of the employees by as much as $64,000.
The Department of Energy paid the four scientists roughly $1.8 million for daily lodging and “inconvenience” during assignments away from home. But these scientists were paid as if they were on temporary duty for up to 14 years — long after most had permanently relocated to job sites.
Princeton University, which the Energy Department pays to run its federal lab for fusion and plasma research, used taxpayer dollars to fund “per diem” payments for the employees’ lodging, as well as “premium” bonuses to supplement their salaries by an additional 12 percent. The extra money — which the university said was reviewed and approved by the Energy Department — was supposed to make up for the expense and difficulty of traveling to an assignment far from home.
Two of the Princeton lab employees worked on what the department considered a “temporary” travel detail for a scientific partnership at a General Atomics research facility in San Diego — one for 14 years and another for nine years. But both had long ago moved to the San Diego area.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/energy-dept-cuts-payment-to-4-workersc/2012/05/18/gIQAiFmlZU_singlePage.html
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