{"id":1938115,"date":"2023-05-25T17:25:21","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T21:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senator-demands-probe-of-atf-over-9-million-in-fraudulent-payments-to-employees\/"},"modified":"2023-05-25T17:27:28","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T21:27:28","slug":"senator-demands-probe-of-atf-over-9-million-in-fraudulent-payments-to-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senator-demands-probe-of-atf-over-9-million-in-fraudulent-payments-to-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator calls for investigation into ATF&#8217;s $9M fraudulent payments to staff."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsenator-demands-probe-of-atf-over-9-million-in-fraudulent-payments-to-employees%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1938115&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><blockquote>\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0525\/406d70c3-6261-4fa6-8f93-02a20aa7b790\/audio.mp3?length=2647341&#038;duration=221\"><\/div>\n<p>The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has been caught in a massive fraud scandal. According to a report from the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), ATF employees fraudulently received at least $9.7 million in pay and benefits over five years. But that&#8217;s not all, the fraud may have gone on longer. The report says ATF is working with the Office of Personnel Management to correct the problems.<\/p>\n<p>But one Republican Senator believes the problem is more significant than reported and wants to know who will be accountable. &#8220;The American people deserve to know the full extent of the ATF bureaucrats&#8217; dishonest dealings,&#8221; says Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) in a letter to Michael E. Horowitz, Department of Justice Inspector General.<\/p>\n<p>The OSC report says a whistleblower reported that from 2016 to 2021, at least 108 ATF employees were misclassified as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/update-washington-d-c-mayor-muriel-bowser-was-warned-but-refused-any-additional-help-before-january-6th-vote-on-stolen-election\/\" title=\"UPDATE: Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Was Warned but Refused Any Additional Help Before January 6th Vote on Stolen Election\">law enforcement personnel<\/a>. As a result, they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senator-demands-probe-of-atf-over-9-million-in-fraudulent-payments-to-employees\/\" title=\"Senator calls for investigation into ATF's M fraudulent payments to staff.\">reportedly received enhanced retirement benefits<\/a> and pay.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, in June 2020, two ATF whistleblowers told the OSC that &#8220;ATF has a longstanding practice of systematically and intentionally misclassifying non-law enforcement jobs as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/texas-dem-voted-to-cut-law-enforcement-jobs-amid-concerns-of-cartel-violence\/\" title=\"Texas Dem Voted To Cut Law Enforcement Jobs Amid Concerns of Cartel Violence\">law enforcement positions<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Investigators identified 108 ATF misclassified employees. According to the report, the ATF ignored the law and agency regulations to set its own compensation system.<\/p>\n<h2>Culture of Gross Mismanagement<\/h2>\n<p>In her letter to Horowitz, Ernst writes that this scandal is just the tip of the iceberg. She believes that there is a culture of gross mismanagement at ATF that needs to be addressed. And she&#8217;s not alone in her concerns.<\/p>\n<p>The OSC report found that the ATF established several merit promotion policies that violate OPM regulations and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kevin-mccarthy-calls-on-pentagon-to-restore-nsa-general-counsel-michael-ellis-to-active-service\/\" title=\"Kevin McCarthy Calls on Pentagon to Restore NSA General Counsel Michael Ellis to Active Service\">merit system principles<\/a>. This is a clear indication that the agency has been operating outside the law for some time.<\/p>\n<h3>Who Will Be Held Accountable?<\/h3>\n<p>It&#8217;s clear that the ATF has a lot of work to do to correct the problems identified in the OSC report. But the bigger question is, who will be held accountable for this massive fraud scandal?<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Ernst is calling for a full investigation into the matter. And she&#8217;s not alone. The American people deserve to know the truth about what&#8217;s been going on at ATF. And they deserve to see those responsible held accountable for their actions.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Will the ATF be able to correct the problems identified in the OSC report?<\/li>\n<li>Will those responsible for the fraud be held accountable?<\/li>\n<li>What other problems are lurking beneath the surface at ATF?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are all questions that need to be answered. And the American people deserve nothing less than the truth.<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned for updates on this developing story.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Office of Special Counsel (OSC) found that ATF employees fraudulently received $9.7 million in pay and benefits over five years. The fraud may have gone on longer. ATF is cooperating with the OSC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1615,"featured_media":1938116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[22579,22503,3755,16169,3976,5398,4012,8037],"class_list":["post-1938115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-atfs","tag-9m","tag-calls","tag-fraudulent","tag-investigation","tag-payments","tag-senator","tag-staff"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1938115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1615"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1938115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1938115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1938116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1938115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1938115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1938115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}