It Pays to Be Dead: Federal Checks to Dead Employees
It may seem incredible, but the U.S. government has spent $120 million over the last five years to pay dead federal employees.
Yet the government insists it is running a fiscally tight ship. Congress cannot seem to find ways to cut spending.
In one case, a man died in 1971. His son collected his paychecks for 37 years. The government discovered the error when the son died.
The Director of U.S. Office of Personnel Management insists that his office has made cleaning the records a priority.
For some reason, the OPM failed to implement a series of 14 reforms suggested by the inspector general in 2005.
But this will be fixed Real Soon Now.
The Director says the OPM is trying to get back $13 million. Good luck with that!
The acronym OPM is also used for “other people’s money.”
Government investigators found that more than 89,000 stimulus payments of $250 each from the massive economic recovery package went to people who were either dead or in prison.
It is clear what needs to be done. Anyway, it is clear to the Director. He went to Congress to request more money for the OPM. It has spent $100 million to upgrade its computer system over the last decade. Its work force has doubled. But this is not enough.
It needs OPM.
Continue reading here.
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Posted on May 8, 2012. The original is here.