Our friends at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms stand accused of paying administrative employees extra cash that usually only applies to investigative field agents. A Whistleblower has come forward and described the allegedly fraudulent pay practices he says he uncovered while working in the ATF’s human resources department.
From CBS News . . .
The whistleblower said some in administrative jobs at the agency were paid a special bonus known as law enforcement availability pay, or LEAP, even though they did not qualify. Government regulations stipulate the bonus is reserved for “criminal investigators” who are on call and expected to work unscheduled, additional hours.
According to the report, the LEAP payments boost salaries by as much as 25%. Here’s Catherine Herridge’s report . . .
View this post on Instagram
That would constitute theft of tax dollars, which, when you think about it, really isn’t significantly different from the rest of the federal government’s daily operations.
An Office of Personnel Management audit concluded at least 94 employees were inappropriately classified. The office “suspended” the ATF’s ability to create certain jobs for “no less than six months,” saying the bureau may have engaged in “prohibited personnel practices.”
“If it’s true, then it’s a very significant amount of wasted tax dollars,” said former Senate investigator Jason Foster, who has spent his career supporting whistleblowers and reviewed CBS News’ findings. “It could be a waste of hundreds of millions of dollars if the same thing were happening throughout government.”
Note that at the beginning of the the report, Nora O’Donnell makes sure to poitn out that the ATF “has not a permanent director for the past six years, even as violent crime has soared nationwide.” The implication, of course, is that these kinds of shenanigans are more likely to happen in a three-letter federal bureaucracy without a firm hand at the top. The kind David Chipman, naturally, could have provided if only intransigent gun nuts hadn’t opposed and killed his nomination.
Of course, this whole thing will be written off as an unfortunate administrative error, a clerical snafu. After all, in a government that’s seriously considering throwing $3.5 trillion at remaking America, how much does a hundred million or so among a few civil service employees really matter?
Waste, Fraud and Abuse; isn’t that the ATF’s motto?
Now we see why Chipman wanted the position so bad…He wanted in on the action.
That’s the motto of all governmental departments, agencies and bureaus. When statist regulation, licensing and taxing schemes exist, corruption will inevitably follow.
I think that’s Abuse, Threats, and Fraud, no?
Doesn’t the photo of the ATF fortress remind you of the Coliseum in Rome?
More like the hanging gardens of Babylon.
“More like the hanging gardens of Babylon.”
Yeah, I can see that.
Dumb ass Chipman should have said I’m going after the corruption in the system instead of any one with a gunm is a criminal in waiting.
Going after the corruption in the system would have been his death nail for sure from the people whom had the power to hire or fire, however he would of at least had the support of We The People. [ if that matters anymore]
Years ago I heard of a system in the ATF where a manager’s grade and pay grade were determined by how many staff they were responsible for. So they would hire staff to meet the requirements for the next grade.
Personally, I’ve had enough of all this ‘whistleblower’ craziness. From Snowden to former Facebook employees.
They rarely actually say anything people didn’t already know. Most of it is politically motivated. In the end, it very rarely results in anything worth while.
so hey big boy, how much of what Snowden revealed did yuo already know? And IF you know those things WHY did not YOU break them to the public?
you’re just throwing rocks. Reminds me of a story from long ago where little boys were throwing rocks at some bear cubs.. and Mama Bear came up and evened up the score. Dead kids who richly deserved it.
We all already knew that government was spying on us. They still are. It wasn’t what I knew. We ALL knew that. The ONLY difference Snowden made was to make it something more than what most people saw as conspiracy theory. But it’s all the same thing and it is what it is. If you believe what Snowden said then it doesn’t matter that he said it. It’s all stuff the US government has been doing for the last 50 years (more really). Just what is it that you think is happening with social media?
Lol
Yet people laughed at Trump for saying they wire-tapped him. But that’s what Snowden said they do. It’s like everyone lives with selective hearing.
It’s hard to believe that people are so gullible to think he said anything new. People are seeing through tunnel vision with blinders on.
The difference is Snowden et al. are coming in the documentation to show that they are not just blowing out a lot of gas like you.
@ UpInArms
I understand the need for documentation but if you think I’m going to waste everyone’s time explaining why the earth is spherical and not flat, your sorely mistaken.
I think its “Abuse with Tax payer Funding”.
“I think its “Abuse with Tax payer Funding”.”
Not at all. What you are seeing is the Deep State in action.
“An Office of Personnel Management audit concluded at least 94 employees were inappropriately classified. The office “suspended” the ATF’s ability to create certain jobs for “no less than six months,” saying the bureau may have engaged in “prohibited personnel practices.”
So under ex-President Trump, his ATF was responsible for paying millions in unearned compensation?
Another reason to be thankful Joe Biden is now president, looks like the ATF will be held accountable under the Biden administration.
After trump’s disastrous bump stock decision, a little professional management at the ATF is a good thing.
“We should take the guns first and worry about the court later!” DJT
All this says to me is further proof that the ATF needs to be defunded, disbanded, and removed from society. Regardless who is president.
Donal Trump on the Texas church shooter
“that very brave person [Stephen Willeford] who happened to have a gun or a rifle in his truck go out and shoot him, and hit him and neutralize him.”
https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/07/politics/trump-extreme-vetting-guns-korea/index.html
Trump: I could ‘shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters’
https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/23/politics/donald-trump-shoot-somebody-support/index.html
btw
The “gun community” has never supported the general ownership of machine guns in the civilian population. The smartest people in the “Arms room” say it’s just a waste of ammunition to own one.
They are more comfortable with the police and military being the only ones allowed to openly carry fully auto weapons.
The gun community DOES support the civilian ownership of machine guns. It’s just not seen as practical in most situations.
Chris…Sit down, get yourself a bag of Twizzlers and chew on this…
1) The Second Amendment is one thing.
2) The criminal misuse of firearms, bricks, bats, knives, etc. is another thing.
3) History Confirms Gun Control in any shape, matter or form is a racist and nazi based Thing.
so just WHO do YOU know in the “gun community” anyway?You must know all the ones I don’t know, cause NO ONE I know is opposed to the idea of full automatic weapons. We also know there is a swtich, and that it is for. There ARE times when the spray and pray policy is valid. So switch to full auto fire. Other times not.. so leave it on semi auto position.
Kyle Rittenhouse has proven, with proper training, you don’t need to “spray and pray” in combat.
And just anyone can prove, in 15 minutes from a standing start, that regardless of all the distractions above, the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America PROHIBITS any infringement of any person’s right to keep and bear arms. There are multibillionaires who shoot, if they wish to blow off $100,000 in a day of full auto that is their RIGHT, and if they wish to sponsor a range day where a million dollars worth of ammo is shot off by a thousand of their closest friends, that is also their right. It does not matter if every single gun owner agrees with an infringement, it is still unconstitutional. Whenever we hear that 99.736% of gunowners agree with this or that infringement, we need to remember 2 things. 1) 87.54% of all quoted statistics are made up on the spot, and 2) If everybody agrees with them, as they claim, they could pass a Constitutional Amendment in less than a week. And there are several billionaires who would fund every bit of that effort. Meaning they are lying to us.
“So under ex-President Trump, his ATF was responsible for paying millions in unearned compensation?”
Actually, the article states that Joe reported he discovered this in 2016, meaning a prior administration’s people put it into place. That would likely make it, er, Obama/Biden people setting it up. Can’t expect Trump to have cleaned out all the graft put in place by his predecessors.
“Can’t expect Trump to have cleaned out all the graft put in place by his predecessors.”
There entire goal was to harrass Trump daily, so he could not drain the swamp.
They got him out of the White House, and they still can’t let him go. Could be he’s still a threat to their agenda…
And I looked at that Washington Examiner article you reference regarding the 3.5 trillion plan, what a load of crap!
Here’s a line from the Washington Examiner article you cite:
“It creates a universal prekindergarten program, despite convincing evidence from Canada that such programs are harmful to children.“
Oh yeah, preschool is harmful to children, hilarious!
I guess the Washington Examiner believes Donald Trump needs more “poorly educated” voters.
I thought you supported defunding the [Federal] police???
Nope, neither myself nor Joe Biden for that matter, has ever said we want to defund the police.
Y’all gotta quit watching Fox news, it’ll make your head all squishy.
You want to federalize, nationalize, all the police. You don’t want local control of the cops.
Candace Owens video 3 min long
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vnf6nwtYYI
It’s actually $5 TRILLION and it will be EVERY year going forward. NO new fed program is one time/goes away. PLUS the BS/phoney $1.5TRILLION “infrastructure”
You know a trillion? ONE THOUSAND BILLION. TWELEVE ZEROS
$5000000000000
Miner is STILL a moron.
I was reading that the 3.5 trillion dollar proposal is to be paid out over the next decade, so “only” $350 billion dollars a year, or about half the annual Pentagon budget. Not saying that the bill is a good idea; it reminds me too much of how Obama Care was passed: “Pass the bill and we will find out what is in it later.” The current bill is 2500 pages long, and you have to wonder what kinds of mischief is hidden in that massive text.
I would actually be very appreciative if my fellow taxpayers would give me only $350 billion a year, I would send every one a digitally reproduced handwritten thank-you note every year or two. Mkay?
preschool AS PRESENTLY FORMED is very harmful to young children. I know of NO parent personally (and I know dozens of parents with young children) who would ever allow their young ones to darken the door of any of those state tun preschools.
so your ppoint is…..??
That’s OK, someone needs to fill those burger flipping jobs.
I’m trying to now.
I personally would love to be promoted to burger flipper.
Enuf cleaning those dang toilets.
94 positions, if paid 100k a year would amount to about $2,350,000. For 6 years that would be $14,100,000. 14 million isn’t chump change, but it is not 100s of millions – it is like overtime, which at 1.5x an hourly rate is usually worth it to the employer for not having to add new people to the payroll and pay benefits.
Not that I am excusing it, but as far as waste in government this is much ado about nothing. I almost wonder if the LEAP payments are linked to the forfeiture plans that law enforcement shares when they “capture suspected criminals” that could deal in illegal firearms/parts, unlicensed alcohol, and/or interstate smuggling of tobacco products.
“94 positions, if paid 100k a year would amount to about $2,350,000.”
Home schooled?
94 x $100k = $9.4m
And benefits, usually considered to be about 35 to 40% additional, would make it even more.
“Home schooled?”
How about, gov’t schooled? He calculated the fraudulent overpayment.
Aaaa shit, what do you expect of me?
I’m a Marxist Democrat, we can’t do math.
Look fat, look, here’s the deal. C’mon man, that 3.5 trillion is paid for. It costs us nothing. It’s free!
“C’mon man, that 3.5 trillion is paid for. It costs us nothing. It’s free!”
I generally don’t like defending Dims, but….
In order to understand the intended meaning of “it costs nothing”, one must be familiar with how government talks to itself. “Costs” in terms of a legislative proposal doesn’t mean the difference between spending no money, and spending some amount of money. To most people, “cost” is any amount of funding/planned expenditure for a piece of legislation. Government does use the concept under the term “cost”, but is also has another meaning that is context based.
(Note: if you want to understand why Biden keeps saying “no cost”, read on; but it is long. if you just want to make noise, don’t bother)
Now, onto “cost” as the government sees it.
For instance, if a legislative package contains funding for XYZ purpose, an a new shiny object appears, the question of “cost” is now subjected to an analysis of whether to lobby for additional funds (growing the budget/expenditures), or deleting an aspect of XYZ that represents an amount of money that is now required for a new element of the legislation.
So, XWZ legislation had a budget/planned expenditure of $10, and elements ABCDE are each budgeted/”costed”/funded at $2. This $10 is considered “cost” the same way as both government and the public would understand it.
Now, element F comes along, and is oh so important. The “cost” of element is $2. After analysis, the decision is made to include item F in the legislation. Now, the question becomes whether to ask for increased funding/expenditure, or take out one of the other elements. If the latter is the choice, then the legislation funding/expenditure/cost remains $10, and the claim can be made that element F was included in the legislation “at no cost”.
The process above, in government terms, is validly identified “at no cost”. The problem is with the perception of the public regarding “cost”. The public sees any expenditure as a “cost”; i.e. the money’s gotta come from somewhere, and that is a “cost”. The nuance of substituting legislation elements, and declaring “no cost” is that government is saying “at no ADDITIONAL cost”.
It is up to the speaker/writer to ensure the audience correctly identified, and words that are understandable and meaningful to the audience are used to actually communicate. Government fails to adequately when it determines that the audience must be proficient at gov-speak in order for communication to work. Of course, government is fond of misspeaking….for its own purposes.
That’s like saying you, you take a test where you’re taking cocaine or not. What do you think? Huh? Are you a junkie?
“That’s like saying you, you take a test where you’re taking cocaine or not. What do you think? Huh? Are you a junkie?”
Not sure I’m really following you on this one (and maybe I wasn’t as clear as intended). Could you elaborate?
I‘m supposed to stop and walk out of the room.
miner49IQ… You are up to your eyeballs in Jim Crow Gun Control demoCrap. That means you have no podium.
If you were not such a worthless slanderous, libelous pos you’d know the choice for POTUS DJT was either bump stocks or allow a knee jerk congress to take the reins and do away with much more than just bump stocks. Next time before you talk out that a-hole below your nose learn what was behind the decision for bump stocks.
BTW..You consistently ignore the history of racism and genocide inherent with Gun Control. By all accounts you have to have some racist and nazi in you to do that…Ain’t dat right?
“Ain’t dat right?”
“dat”?
Just can’t help yourself, can you?
And you claim trump banned bump stocks so Congress would not do something much worse?
Really, you disinformation specialists need to learn that in the United States, a bill does not become law until the president signs it.
What you’re saying is your concern was that Donald Trump would sign a repressive gun control act into law, and given his past statements on gun control you are probably right.
“Maybe we should take the guns first and worry about the courts lighter!” DJT
minor49IQ… POTUS DJT signed an executive order. Executive orders can be easily reversed whereas undoing a law is an act of congress.
Had POTUS DJT vetoed a bill that went further than bump stocks 2/3 each of the House and Senate can vote to override the veto. Thus POTUS DJT acted accordingly you politically inept, history illiterate, Gun Control nazi stupid pos…Ain’t dat right?
“2/3 each of the House and Senate can vote to override the veto“
Not enough Democrats in Congress at that point to veto proof a gun control bill. It could only become law if Trump signed it, which experience shows he would be all too happy to execute.
“The American carnage stops right here, right now!” DJT
minor49IQ…How many Rats in congress at the time is neither here nor there following such carnage. If POTUS DJT wanted Congress involved he would have sat back, done nothing and let congress go beyond bump stocks. Obviously POTUS DJT did not do that and ended it all with an executive order. On the other hand as I recall obama/obiden let congress have at it following sandy hook.
The History you habitually ignore shows the democRat Party has always been HQ for Gun Control Filth. With that said you attempting to point the finger at POTUS DJT amounts to comparing a parking ticket to a train wreck. Ain’t dat right?
And furthermore…Following a tragedy where a firearm was clearly criminally misused the democRat Party and media cohorts set the pace for Gun Control. Next comes lost in space, knee jerk solutions from politicians and ivory tower American who lives have zip, nada, nothing to do with firearms like people with 20/20 vision have nothing to do with eye glasses.
Next comes the confused well meaning law abiding Gun Owners who are all over the map attempting to defend their rights while Gun Control and its diabolical baggage skates by without a scratch.
Once the Second Amendment, Crime and Gun Control are separated Gun Control stands alone out in the open so when crime occurs carefree Gun Control can choke on its sicko diabolical baggage.
1) The Second Amendment is one thing.
2) The criminal misuse of firearms, bricks, bats, knives, vehicles, etc. is another thing.
3) History Confirms Gun Control in any shape, matter or form is a racist and nazi based Thing.
“The smartest people in the “Arms room” say it’s just a waste of ammunition to own one.” Guessing “the Smartest People in the “Arms Room” (aka Mommie’s basement) haven’t personally been in a lush tropical setting or rocky shithole overwhelmingly outnumbered by slopes/ragheads intent on doing great bodily harm to their person. That RockOla switch can be very comforting.
If you can’t shoot, full auto perhaps is a idiots substitute.
The “machine gun” issue is another case of apples and oranges.
For military purposes, a full auto weapon provides useful functions (suppressive fire being one of them), where accuracy above all does not apply. For self-defense, especially at distance, full-auto might not be so useful (lacking accuracy to ensure a lack of collateral damage, and suppressive fire is probably unwelcome at law).
The primary meaning of the Second Amendment is military. Any other consideration is secondary, at best. Nothing idiotic about owning full-auto weapons (especially belt fed).
I can appreciate your description of full auto applications, now could someone explain why domestic police officers, Federal, state, and local are allowed to possess them? To carry them on duty? Seems they would be the LAST people we’d want to be spraying BBs all over the neighborhood, all out of control and with unlimited ammo.
The sound you’re hearing is that of shredders making records disappear and phones being hit with a hammer.
Apparent fed agencies passing our “bonus” is frequent practice. The Fed GS pay scale + allowances just isn’t enough for the lifestyle they like to become acustomed.
Despicable stuff.
the ATF itself is is a complete waste of compensation…they are completely USELESS human scum…they all need to be transferred to the border patrol or just fired flat out..
That’s the starting wage for all the fascist departments of the new regime!!
Say what you want but my experience is that federal employees that are overpaid must repay the money. They will begin collections from ongoing salary and from retirement if retired. There is no bargaining from an employee perspective.
Please don’t ever use that Dog’s face again. It is too much cringe for me right now.
@LarryinTX
“…now could someone explain why domestic police officers, Federal, state, and local are allowed to possess them? To carry them on duty? Seems they would be the LAST people we’d want to be spraying BBs all over the neighborhood, all out of control and with unlimited ammo.”
Well, when it comes time for long guns, one can never know who or how many are the
enemyperps. Suppressive fire: shoot ’em all; let God sort ’em out.Comments are closed.