Federal Government Pays Workers $5 Million to Not Work

The Fiscal Times reports:

The federal government has a serious problem keeping tabs on its employees, from an FCC worker watching porn while at work, to DHS employees collecting overtime pay to sit on Netflix or talk on the phone.

And now, a new report from the Patent and Trademark Office found that at least 19 paralegals have been getting paid $60,000 to $80,000 a year to sit on Facebook, online shop and watch TV --costing taxpayers about $5.1 million in the last four years. Even more egregious -- the auditors said managers looked the other way and billed the hours under “other time” while also giving each of the workers thousands of dollars worth of performance bonuses during that same time period.

Thanks to the wise Ben Cunningham for the heads up on this one.