OPM has since suspended ATF's authority to classify federal law enforcement positions. Image: DCStockPhotography/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffSen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has asked the Justice Department inspector general’s office to conduct a fuller investigation into job classification practices at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in light of an internal ATF probe that found the agency had “intentionally” misclassified some higher-level positions.
That probe, done at the request of the Office of Special Counsel after that office received whistleblower allegations, found that ATF had classified more than 100 positions as law enforcement—making the employees eligible for higher pay and enhanced retirement benefits–even though the jobs did not involve those responsibilities.
OPM has since suspended ATF’s authority to classify federal law enforcement positions and ATF has begun the process of updating position descriptions, with about half of those employees already having retired or having been reassigned.
Ernst wrote to the IG’s office at Justice, ATF’s parent department, that “more work remains to be done on this important issue to ensure the ATF’s culture of gross mismanagement of taxpayer funds is fully examined and remediated.” She asked for an investigation into whether the first probe failed to account for all the positions that were misclassified and all the associated costs.
She also asked for “recommendations for disciplinary action up to and including termination, as well as criminal referrals where appropriate, for those ATF personnel implicated in improper or illegal activity.”
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