FBI employees in Iraq were overpaid millions, audit says

For nearly five years, FBI leaders encouraged employees on temporary assignment in Iraq to bill an average of $45,000 in overtime and extra pay by routinely claiming to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week, even when some of that time was spent eating, exercising, watching movies or attending cocktail parties, the Justice Department inspector general reported Thursday.

FBI counter-terrorism division managers condoned a time-billing practice under which 1,150 employees between 2003 and 2007 received about $71,000 during a typical 90-day tour, Inspector General Glenn Fine reported.

The practice violated federal law and regulations and added at least $7.8 million to the $99-million taxpayer cost of the FBI efforts.

The FBI changed the policy in 2008 while the investigation was underway. Using lower claims submitted by workers this year as a guide, the inspector general conservatively estimated that between 2003 and 2007, the typical employee got about $5,594 per tour in unwarranted payments.

“We found that, on the whole, few if any employees worked exactly 16 hours a day, every day, for 90 days straight, within the meaning of the term ‘work’ as it is used in applicable regulations and policies,” Fine’s office concluded.

Several FBI employees claimed that their weekly “cocktail party was ‘work’ because it was a ‘liaison’ effort” with employees from other agencies, the report noted.

Others washed clothes during working hours. One employee defended the practice, saying, “When you’re in that environment, anything you do to survive is work for the FBI.”

FBI Assistant Director John Miller acknowledged that the FBI “allowed a flawed system to develop and remain in place too long.”

FBI employees sent to Iraq helped investigate Saddam Hussein, interrogated detainees at Abu Ghraib and other facilities, and collected information to protect U.S. targets from terrorism.

The FBI also aided Iraqi authorities’ investigations, the report said.

T.J. Harrington, then deputy assistant director of the counter-terrorism division, said the pay was justified because agents were constantly on call, had no freedom to use off-time, and exercised to maintain fitness and relieve stress, the report stated.