Investigation demanded of alleged $900,000 embezzlement at EPA

PJ Media:

The top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is demanding an investigation into a former top aide to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy who faces federal charges of embezzling almost $900,000.

In a letter to EPA Inspector General Arthur A. Elkins Jr. dated Aug. 27, Sen. David Vitter, of Louisiana, said “serious questions remain unanswered regarding EPA’s internal processes that enabled such fraud to occur” and asked Elkins to “make recommendations to ensure that this does not happen again.”

The Department of Justice on Aug. 23 filed a criminal information with the U.S. District Court of Washington D.C. maintaining that John C. Beale, 64, onetime deputy administrator within the Office of Air and Radiation, stole and converted for his own use $886,186 beginning sometime in 2000 to April 30, 2013.

A document accompanying the criminal information asserts that Beale stole the money by collecting bonuses and extra salary he was not entitled to during his EPA tenure. If convicted, Beale faces a maximum 10 years in prison, a fine and restitution.

Beale was a veteran EPA employee, serving under presidents of both parties for more than two decades. He served as McCarthy’s top deputy when she headed the Office of Air and Radiation from 2009 until taking over the agency in July.

In his letter, Vitter said the Beale matter “raises a number of questions about the integrity of the process that administers EPA’s workforce payroll and benefits.”
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Was this a retirement plan?  It appears to have operated for several years without detection.  The government seems to have a problem with its bonus system.  REcently it has been discovered that bonuses were given to people in the Department of Veteran Affairs despite a serious backlog in handling claims.  Since when are bonuses given for not doing your work?