Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been caught manipulating reports, misappropriating funds, botching responses to environmental crises, and lying to the American public.
Now we can add bribery and cowardice to the list. A hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform revealed that a former EPA employee was convicted of child molesting and imitating a police office.
Not only did the EPA fail to fire this employee- they actually paid him $55,000 to leave.
The Washington Examiner reports:
The settlement was discussed at a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on EPA employee misconduct Wednesday. Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said that was one of the most egregious cases of employee misconduct and misuse of taxpayer dollars.
Stan Meiburg, acting deputy administrator at the EPA, said the agency attempted to fire the employee but the Merit Systems Protection Board, which adjudicates personnel decisions, overturned the decision. Instead, the agency paid the employee $55,000 to retire and leave the agency, he said. That shocked Chaffetz.
“It’s just pretty stunning,” he said. “How do we need to change the Merit Systems Protection Board, because we’re not protecting the American taxpayer and we’re not protecting the employees who have to sit next to this freak of a pervert.”
There are 90 other cases of misconduct pending for the EPA. Here are some of the highlights, according to the Examiner:
Among the cases detailed during Thursday’s hearing were an EPA contractor who admitted to watching pornography while on the job for one or two hours per day for 18 years before being fired, and an employee who stole thousands of dollars of office equipment and is still employed by the agency despite being convicted of theft, among others.
This is what happens when having a government job becomes an entitlement, rather than a privilege you have to earn. Government agencies are so caught up in their own bureaucratic protocol, they can’t even recognize the right thing to do when the answer is staring them in the face.
This is a disgrace. Government employees are not above the law. The only severance package this criminal should have received is a jail sentence.
