There is no central accounting of federal senior executives resulting in them being placed on leave but according to OPM and employing agencies such occasions are "very uncommon," the Congressional Budget Office has said.
CBO looked at the issue while preparing a cost estimate of a bill (HR-6016) that has cleared the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
That measure would allow agencies to place SES employees on unpaid administrative leave for up to 180 days if they are accused of misappropriation of funds, misconduct, neglect of duty, or malfeasance. Currently, investigations of such offenses generally require agencies to initially place employees on paid leave, but later those employees may be suspended indefinitely without pay, CBO said, adding that administrative leave for misconduct is not tracked separately.
For cost estimating purposes, CBO assumed that "citations for such misconduct will continue to be uncommon and therefore only a few SES employees would be subject to unpaid leave."
The bill is one of the numerous proposals arising in the wake of the GSA conferences and awards scandal.