National Security Work Leaves Plenty Of Time For Games, Outside Employment, And Sexual Misconduct
from the BE-YOUR-OWN-BOSS-WORK-ONLY-4-HR-SHIFTS-ETC! dept
FOIA terrorist Jason Leopold has scored another win, securing a copy of an Intelligence Community Inspector General's investigation from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It's the sort of thing that's rarely released, most likely because it comes from the inner sanctum's inner sanctum. Maybe this one just seemed too damning to keep secret -- not for the ODNI or the Intelligence Community, but for the unnamed (well... redacted) ODNI employee who was caught abusing all sorts of policies, procedures, and laws while on the clock.
The investigation report [PDF] opens with a list of five violations affecting all areas of the employee's work. And also possibly some violations of other employees.
Subject engaged in conflicts of interest
Subject engaged in improper or unauthorized outside employment
Subject engaged in falsification and misrepresentation
Subject misused government information and information systems.
Subject engaged in sexual misconduct while on duty
So, a very busy employee, albeit one not actually doing much to fulfill the job description. When she wasn't working for the government (which was apparently most of her shift), she was working for up to 14 other companies. The report says the employee "averaged in excess of five hours per day on personal affairs and unofficial business."
What she was supposed to be doing was managing secured databases/sites and providing budget planning. What she actually did was handle work for outside companies while collecting a paycheck from taxpayers. This included companies currently being used by the IC as contractors and those seeking to win government contracts -- contradicting the information she gave supervisors and presented in disclosure forms. Even with this additional, conflicting workload, she still found plenty of time to do nothing.
A counterintelligence analyst remarked of [redacted] in an assessment of the audits from May 2010 to May 2013, "I have highlighted the subject's game playing, and noted the trends. Subject appears to use specific gaming sites for a set period of time and then switches to a new site ... There do not appear to be any major gaps in time where subject was not visiting some type of gaming site."
Working for fifteen employers is far less of a strain than I have been led to believe
When confronted with the issue of illegal executables, games, and inappropriate chats on her account during the interview, [redacted] admitted that she spends approximately "all day" on Facebook and plays games at work from four to six hours per day. She also admitted that she engaged in sexually explicit Sametimes with a contractor for the first year of her employment with ODNI.
The bar has been raised for wasting time at work. Between the games and providing some sort of assistance to fourteen outside companies (and engaging in sexual misconduct), the employee also found time to repeatedly access government databases for personal reasons. One of her favorite Privacy Act violations targeted the IC's most famous/infamous former member.
Between June 10, 2013 and July 2, 2013, [redacted] ran JPAS [Joint Personnel Adjudication System] record searches for Edward Snowden 357 times under three of her accounts (Link Solutions, Augusta Westland, and Twin Soft Corporation) while at ODNI facilities during duty hours. According to the Defense Manpower Data Center's Manual on JPAS Account Management, one of the most common JPAS user violations is "querying the JPAS application for 'celebrity' records." This policy is explicitly forbidden in the manuals for JPAS. In the case of 357 unauthorized JPAS queries, [redacted] violated the Privacy Act.
[...]
Between June 10, 2013, and May 19, 2014, [redacted] ran JPAS record-searches for her own record 442 times under four accounts (Link Solutions, Augusta Westland, 99999 Consulting, and Wheeler Network Design). 324 of the 442 JPAS violations in this case were performed while at ODNI facilities during duty hours. According to the Defense Manpower Data Center's Manual on JPAS Account Management, one of the most common JPAS user violations is "querying the JPAS application for your own record." This policy is explicitly forbidden in the manuals for JPAS.
Unfortunately, the report doesn't say what happened to this employee. Some of the IG's conclusions are redacted while others only say the investigation confirmed abuse of systems or violated policies. Her outside compensation also drew the heat of the IRS, which stepped in to examine her tax returns -- which she filed on the clock using an IC computer. It's been confirmed Snowden's privacy was violated, but I would imagine the IC feels he won't be filing a lawsuit anytime soon. It's difficult to believe this person could still be working for the government, but it's far from impossible she's still collecting a taxpayer-funded paycheck somewhere. The wheels of bureaucracy grind slower than the wheels of justice and this combines a little of both.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: inspector general, intelligence community, misconduct, national security, odni
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Can't imagine why. It's not as though they needed Snowden to tarnish their own image.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
My heroine.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Definitely a fire-able offence.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
In the case of 357 unauthorized JPAS queries, [redacted] violated the Privacy Act.
The Privacy Act is only to be violated using authorized queries.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Send me a chat when you get to work!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
DoD employee
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Unfortunately, the report doesn't say what happened to this employee. Nothing from her employer, but now that the IRS is involved, it's Al Capone time.
I wonder if she has a vault.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So the fuck what?
You can find people goofing off like that anywhere. ANYWHERE. Public sector, private sector, intelligence, law enforcement, judicial branch, and hot dog stands. And, yes, they get away with it at about the same rate everywhere.
I had a private sector job where I was paid 7 figures for two years to literally do nothing at all.
So what is interesting about this personnel matter, other than your desire to demonize anybody who works for the government?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: So the fuck what?
Correction: it was 6 figures, not 7. But I literally did do nothing at all, not even come in to work.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: So the fuck what?
It's one thing to take an occasional mental break at work to browse a non-work website and it's quite another to spend ALL DAY LONG every single day on non-work related activities taking home a paycheque you clearly didn't earn.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: So the fuck what?
> proud of why...?
He didn't imply it was something to be proud of. He merely stated that such practices are common everywhere, both in and out of government.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: So the fuck what?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: So the fuck what?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: So the fuck what?
If you fudge off in a government position, it's the taxpayer's problem and loss of money. Not many taxpayers would be happy to know they paid this woman to do nothing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: So the fuck what?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: So the fuck what?
Sorry, you should have been fired also. The fact that this is public sector makes it interesting.
Most of us would be fired for 3 years of nothing. ("audits from May 2010 to May 2013")
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: So the fuck what?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Failing Upwards
National Security Work Leaves Plenty Of Time For Games, Outside Employment, And Sexual Misconduct
This malfeasance is not an outlier - it's the norm.
Unfortunately, the report doesn't say what happened to this employee.
Unfortunately for us (ie tax payer) this employee was probably promoted.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Grinding Wheels
> this employee. The wheels of bureaucracy grind slower
> than the wheels of justice.
If experience is any guide, she's on administrative leave while those wheels are grinding.
In normal-speak, that means she gets a 6-month to a year vacation on the backs of the taxpayer before losing her job.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]