FBI Agents Overcharge in Wars, Report Finds

December 18, 2008— -- It's not just contractors who are profiting off the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. FBI agents have been trying to rake in extra cash by billing overtime they aren't entitled to, a report released Thursday by the Justice Department's inspector general found.

According to the report, FBI employees in the war zones received an estimated $7.8 million "in excess overtime payments that were not allowable under federal pay statutes, federal regulations, and FBI policies."

The FBI's counterterrorism division "provided incomplete and inaccurate guidance to FBI employees regarding the requirements for claiming overtime, which resulted in abuse of the overtime system," the report found.

FBI management acknowledged the mistake but said that it was developed under difficult circumstances when the country faced an intense national security threat.

"We accept that Headquarters management, in an effort to quickly develop a simple system to compensate FBI employees who volunteered to leave their domestic assignments and serve in war zones, allowed a flawed system to develop and remain in place too long," FBI Assistant Director John Miller said in a statement. It continued: "As the Inspector General's report points out, a system that both fairly recognized employees and complied with pay statutes and other personnel regulations should have been put in place, but wasn't. Over the past year, we have implemented a number of changes and continue to work with the IG."

The report found that the practice derived from the leadership of the FBI's counterterrorism division which "encouraged" or "condoned" employees claiming all waking hours as work. But the OIG report found that FBI employees rarely worked 16 hours a day and that managers allowed employees to claim work for time eating, exercising and socializing. What's more, managers in the counterterrorism division did not consult the human resources division or the office of the general counsel to determine whether these policies were legal, the report stated.