The fruits of unwieldy bureaucracy

LITD readers know that I have always felt it was important to be clear that W as no conservative.  Yes, he generally leaned to the right, but something in the Bush family genetic makeup caused him, like his father and his brother Jeb, to frequently consider, and even act on, ideas with a leftist odor.

I knew that in 2001 and felt that when he proposed a Department of Homeland Security, we would be in for a lot of redundant government activity, shaky accountability, and probably a hefty dollop of good old fraud and waste.

That last potentiality seems to be playing out:

Employees from six Homeland Security Department offices have abused an overtime program and cost the government about $8.7 million a year, according an Office of Special Counsel letter and report sent Thursday to the president and Congress.

Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner told President Barack Obama and lawmakers that whistle-blowers alerted her office to the abuses. Lerner's letter and an accompanying report detailed allegations of overtime abuses in Washington. She said her office is investigating five other overtime abuse cases and expects the allegations to be substantiated.

The Office of Special Counsel is an independent government investigative and prosecutorial office.

According to one whistle-blower, some Customs and Border Protection employees assigned to the commissioner's situation room at its headquarters in Washington were paid about two hours of overtime nearly every day but spent much of that time watching television, surfing the Internet or otherwise relaxing at their desks.

Other offices cited in the report are:

--The CBP office of training and development in Glynco, Ga.

--The Office of Security and Integrity at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services headquarters in Washington.

--The Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Houston.

--CBP facilities in San Ysidro, Calif., and Laredo, Texas.

In her letter to Obama and lawmakers, Lerner said the so-called administratively uncontrollable overtime is "intended to be used only when an employee's hours cannot be scheduled in advance" because of a heavy workload or "irregular work." She said none of the reported abuses at the six DHS offices met that requirement.

"Such abuse of overtime pay is a violation of the public trust and a gross waste of scarce government funds," Lerner wrote. "It is incumbent upon DHS to take effective steps to curb the abuse. It is up to the administration and Congress to develop a revised pay system, if warranted, that ensures fair compensation for employees who are legitimately working overtime."

Some opportunistic types saw some organizational fat to be exploited and went for it.  About as surprising as night following day.

In the aftermath of 9/11/01, I figured we'd beef up the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation and our various intelligence agencies  (which, to my civilian, flyover-country eyes look to have some overlap amongst themselves).  But W opted for a different route, which led to the dismal routine one has to endure when preparing to board a plane at the airport, as well as expansion of the original mission of this new behemoth.

And now the inevitable corruption and squandering of the money the government forcible seized from us for supposedly Constitutional purposes.