Saturday, May 2, 2015

EPA geologist viewed porn 2 to 6 hours daily for several years as EPA continued to give him performance awards including cash rewards of up to $2000. IG has been blocked by EPA from accessing key information on EPA corruption

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4/30/15, "Porn-Watching EPA Employees Earning $120,000 A Year Put on Paid Administrative Leave," CNS News, Ali Meyer

"An inspector general (IG) investigation found that employees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) earning $120,000 a year were watching pornography on the job and were put on paid administrative leave for almost a year before anybody tried to fire them. 

“Over the past two years, the EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) has conducted investigations of multiple cases of serious misconduct carried out by EPA employees,” explained the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee at a hearing on EPA mismanagement Thursday.

“EPA OIG investigated three instances of EPA employees who were found to be viewing pornography while at work. The U.S. attorney’s office declined prosecution for two cases while the third resulted in a criminal conviction. One of these employees is still on paid administrative leave pending administrative action by the EPA while another has retired.”

“There are continued problems with EPA employees who watch pornography at work,” said Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) in his opening remarks. “Even more insulting to taxpayers is that after the inspector general reported these abuses, the porn-watching employees were placed on paid administrative leave for almost a year before anybody even tried to fire them. Now these people were being paid roughly, in the neighborhood of about $120,000 a year.

“If you’re sitting there, watching hours of porn on your government computer - fire them,” Chaffetz said.

“The EPA OIG hotline received a complaint on September 11, 2013, alleging that an EPA geologist in the Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) had downloaded more than 7,000 files (1.3 gigabytes) of potentially pornographic files onto an EPA server,” explained Patrick Sullivan, assistant inspector general for investigations.

“The employee admitted that— for approximately 2 to 6 hours during his assigned work hours daily, over a period of ‘several years’—he had viewed and downloaded pornographic images on EPA computer equipment,” explained Sullivan.

“The employee stated that much of his workday was devoted to organizing the downloaded pornography into saved folders. During the course of the OIG’s investigation, the employee also stated that he had received several performance awards, which included monetary awards ranging from $600 to $2,000 and a time-off award of 16 hours,” he added.

In addition to these porn-watching employees within the EPA, another employee was a serial sexual assaulter and was even promoted.

“Today we will discuss more problems concerning EPA employees, including the outrageous behavior of now retired EPA employee Peter Jutro,” said Chaffetz. “Mr. Jutro was the acting associate administrator for the EPA Office of Homeland Security, he also happens to be a serial sexual harasser.

“As a result of an inspector general investigation, we now know that Mr. Jutro sexually harassed at least 16 women while working at the EPA, explained Chaffetz. “Even worse, EPA senior management was aware of his history of harassing women but continued to promote him. EPA management never even took the time to talk to his direct supervisor who had verbally warned Mr. Jutro several times about his unacceptable behavior. In essence, there was no consequence for this abhorrent behavior.

“By turning a blind eye, EPA management allowed at least six more women to be harassed by Mr. Jutro, and we know this because of the good work by the men and women who serve in the inspector general office,” Chaffetz added. “When Mr. Jutro was finally put on paid leave, he quickly retired with full pension benefits to avoid being interviewed by the IG about these allegations.”"

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EPA has its own in-house DHS which prevents necessary oversight of its taxpayer funded activities. In 2014 the IG reported he's been blocked from doing necessary EPA investigations:
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5/9/14, "EPA’s Scandals Go Far Beyond Porn," GlobalWarming.org, Myron Ebell  ..

"The really explosive testimony came from Deputy Inspector General Patrick Sullivan: page 2 of testimony: "The EPA OIG’s Office of Investigations is being impeded from fulfilling its responsibilities by actions of the EPA’s internal Office of Homeland Security (OHS), a unit within the Office of the Administrator. OHS is overseen by Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming, who serves as Chief of Staff to Administrator Gina McCarthy....
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I would like to go on record today and state that, as the official in charge of internal investigations at the EPA, I am very concerned that vital information regarding suspected employee and contractor misconduct is being withheld from the OIG. Because OHS continues to block my office’s access to information essential to the OIG’s work, I cannot assure the committee that we are doing everything possible to root out other “John Beales” who may be at the EPA or other malfeasance of similar magnitude. I wholeheartedly believe that the current situation represents a significant liability for the EPA, the Congress and the American taxpayers. In short, the actions of OHS violate the IG Act, the very legislation that Congress passed to ensure federal agencies have oversight to prevent and detect fraud waste and abuse. Without a shred of doubt, I can say that OHS is preventing the OIG from doing what Congress has mandated us to do."...
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EPA porn viewing files are often loaded with viruses and malware. A career EPA employee viewed porn even as IG agent arrived for an interview-Free Beacon

When an OIG special agent arrived at this employee’s work space to conduct an interview, the special agent witnessed the employee actively viewing pornography on his government-issued computer." 7,000 porn files stored on government computers:
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5/7/14, "Extreme Pornography Agency: EPA official caught with more than 7,000 porn files on government computer," Washington Free Beacon, by CJ Ciaramella
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"An Environmental Protection Agency official spent up to six hours a day on the taxpayer dime looking at pornography, according to the EPA Inspector General. Allan Williams, the deputy assistant inspector general for investigations, told the House Oversight Committee Wednesday that his office had discovered an EPA official who habitually watched porn on a government computer.
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“One such investigation involves a career EPA employee who allegedly stored pornographic materials on an EPA network server shared by colleagues,” Williams testified. “When an OIG special agent arrived at this employee’s work space to conduct an interview, the special agent witnessed the employee actively viewing pornography on his government-issued computer. Subsequently, the employee confessed to spending, on average, between two and six hours per day viewing pornography while at work. The OIG’s investigation determined that the employee downloaded and viewed more than 7,000 pornographic files during duty hours.”"... .
   
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2/11/15, "Bill targets pornography viewing on agency computers," Sean McCalley, federalnewsradio.com

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"Federal employees shouldn't watch hours upon hours of porn at work, according to a new bill from Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.).
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The Eliminating Pornography from Agencies Act would try to stop federal employees from accessing, watching, or sharing pornography on government- issued computers and devices
 
The inspiration for the bill, said Meadows in a release, came from Inspector General reports on the Environmental Protection Agency. The IG found multiple cases of EPA employees working hard at watching porn. 

"One EPA employee was viewing as much as 6 hours of pornography a day in his office," said Meadows. "The same federal employee was found to have downloaded as many as 7,000 pornographic files onto his government computer."
 
Another IG report detailed one employee who pleaded guilty to using his EPA email account to access an Internet site with child pornography.

.. Meadows, the chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations, noted most agencies already have specific rules to prevent this behavior from happening. 

 But still, "It continues to take place. There is absolutely no excuse for federal employees to be viewing and downloading pornographic materials on the taxpayers' dime," he said.

On top of the damage a co-worker who watches porn at work does to office morale, it's a safety issue. 

"Downloading these files, which are often ridden with viruses and malware, poses a cybersecurity threat at our federal agencies," said Meadows."

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EPA a world class joke:
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5/7/14, "EPA Gave Huge Bonus To Porn Addicted Employee," Washington Free Beacon  
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"The EPA confirmed Wednesday that one of their employees, who was rewarded with “performance awards” watched pornography while on the job, as previously reported by the Washington Free Beacon.

 
Rep. John Mica (R., Fla) questioned Allan Williams, the deputy assistant inspector general for investigations at the House Oversight Committee over the employees’ “work activities.”
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So this guy is making $120,000, spending two to six hours a day looking at porno. Then this information I have is he received performance awards during the time period?” Mica asked Williams.

 
Williams responded, “Uh, he possibly did. Yes, sir.”

 
Mica, frustrated with Williams’ inadequate answer, told him that a gentleman in the back of the room was nodding his head in response to his question, prompting Williams to finally admit “He did receive performance awards.”"


 




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