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Friday, March 2, 2012

All federal workers to be quizzed on satisfaction

Don Kelley, center, and other federal employees rallied in April outside Social Security Administration offices in Falls Church. (Mark Gail - The Washington Post) Have a gripe with your boss, or want to praise the management of your agency? Now — if you haven’t before — you can.

In what Obama administration officials are calling a first, all permanent, full- and part-time federal employees will have the opportunity to participate this year in the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, the federal government’s only way of assessing worker satisfaction on a wide scale.

The data, compiled every spring, are then analyzed and tabulated by the Partnership for Public Service, which publishes the widely read “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government” report. (The Partnership maintains a content deal with The Washington Post.)

John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management, told agency officials late last week that an increased interest in the survey results compelled his agency to open it up to more than 1.8 million federal employees to weigh in. The move will more than triple the number of eligible respondents.

“While a Governmentwide census will not be conducted every year, having large numbers of respondents will allow agencies the opportunity to analyze results and develop action plans at lower levels in the organization this year,” Berry said in a memo distributed last Friday.

The next survey is scheduled to begin in April, and feds should have a few weeks to complete it. If history is any guide, full results should be published by late summer.

Follow Ed O’Keefe on Twitter: @edatpost

Friday, February 24, 2012

Federal employees owe $1.03 billion in unpaid taxes

(Daniel Acker - BLOOMBERG) Congressional staffers owed about $10.6 million in unpaid taxes in 2010, a slight increase from the previous year and a growing slice of the roughly $1 billion owed by federal and postal workers nationwide.

The figures come as Republican efforts to pass legislation allowing federal agencies to fire tax delinquent federal employees have slowed and as the White House continues to crack down on improper payments made by agencies to delinquent government contractors and federal beneficiaries.

About 98,000 federal, postal and congressional employees owed $1.03 billion in unpaid taxes at the end of fiscal 2010, according to records provided by the Internal Revenue Service. The total number of delinquent employees dipped slightly from 2009, but the amount owed jumped by $32 million.

The figures are “totally unacceptable and disrespectful to hardworking American taxpayers,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). “If you’re on the federal payroll, the very least you can do is pay your taxes.”

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). (Image via CBS News) Chaffetz and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) have authored bills that would force federal agencies, the U.S. Postal Service and congressional offices to fire employees who purposely avoid paying taxes. Exceptions would be made for employees suffering from family turmoil or working to correct significant financial hardship. Chaffetz’s bill was approved by a committee last spring, but Coburn’s still awaits consideration by a Senate panel.

“Nobody’s going to take any joy in firing someone,” Chaffetz said in an interview. “But there’s enough people there that are simply thumbing their nose at American taxpayers that it’s not acceptable.”

(RELATED: Which federal workers owed taxes in 2010?)

But on Capitol Hill, 684 employees, or almost 4 percent, of the 18,000 congressional staffers owed taxes in 2010 – a jump of 46 workers from 2009. Four percent of House staffers owed $8.5 million and 3 percent of Senate employees owed $2.1 million, the IRS said.

At the Executive Office of the President – encompassing 1,800 employees of the West Wing, the Office of Management and Budget, the National Security Council and the Office of U.S. Trade Representative, among others – 36 staffers, or 2 percent, owed a $833,970. The amount owed increased by almost $3,000 from the previous year.

Civilian employees of the Defense Department — the federal government’s largest employer — fared the worst. More than 25,600 workers at the departments of the Army, Air Force and Navy owed a combined $225.7 million, while another 4,600 civilian Pentagon employees owed $39.4 million.

Among uniformed military personnel, 2 percent of active-duty troops and 2 percent of reservists owed a combined $339 million. Three percent of the nation’s 2.1 million retired military personnel owed $1.6 billion, according to IRS records.

Delinquency rates topped 3.8 percent at the Department of Education, where 176 workers owed $4.2 million, and at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where 391 staffers owed $5 million.

At the U.S. Postal Service, 25,640 employees, or 4 percent of the 667,000-strong workforce, owed $269.6 million. Figures for USPS dipped from 2009, likely due in part to ongoing staff reductions.

More than 2,000 employees, or 3 percent, of the Social Security Administration owe $20.1 million in unpaid taxes. Five staffers at the U.S. Tax Court owed a combined $62,508 and another five at the Office of Government Ethics owed $22,160. Fewer than 1 percent of Treasury Department employees, including the IRS, owed $9.3 million, the agency said.

Just under 2 percent of the 1.8 million federal retirees tracked by the IRS owed $470 million at the end of fiscal 2010.

Overall, American taxpayers owed $114.2 billion in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties at the end of fiscal 2010, according to the IRS.

The agency has tracked tax delinquency among current and retired civilian federal and military personnel since 1993. Annual reports are compiled for agency heads, but the listings are only released publicly by lawmakers or upon request by the news media.

Follow Ed O’Keefe on Twitter: @edatpost

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Federal indictment claims popular Web site Megaupload.com shared pirated material

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Federal indictment claims popular Web site Megaupload.com shared pirated material

View Photo Gallery — Sites they claim to have breached:?A day after many Web sites participated in a protest against the SOPA anti-piracy bill, the Justice Department announced it was shutting down file-sharing site Megaupload.com over piracy violations. Soon after, Anonymous took credit for shutting down the federal agency’s Web site. Here’s a look at other cyberattacks the informal hacking group has claimed credit for.

Text SizePrintE-mailReprints By Sari Horwitz and Cecilia Kang,

Federal authorities shut down one of the Web’s most popular sites Thursday on charges that it illegally shared movies, television shows and e-books, prompting hackers to retaliate by blocking access to several Web sites, including those of the Justice Department and Universal Music.

The shutdown of Megaupload was part of a federal indictment accusing the company of running an international criminal organization that allowed consumers to easily watch or share pirated content. The site’s offerings were a virtual bazaar of what the Internet has to offer, including pornography and illegally copied video games, federal officials said. In some cases, people could see movies before they were released in theaters.

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Who’s involved and what are the stakes?:?A look at the politicians, companies and lobbying groups involved in the dispute over the Stop Online Piracy Act.

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A U.S. online piracy case brought the shutdown of Megaupload.com, one of the world's biggest file sharing sites, along with 4 arrests in New Zealand. It comes just after a massive internet protest over new U.S. anti-piracy laws. (Jan. 20)

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Investigators say Megaupload’s executives made more than $175 million through subscription fees and online ads while robbing authors, movie producers, musicians and other copyright holders of more than $500 million.

“This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States,” the Justice Department and FBI said in a statement.

Seven executives, including Megaupload’s founder, were indicted. But Swizz Beatz, who is listed on some sites as the company’s chief executive, was not charged. Beatz, a musician, is married to singer Alicia Keys. Although the music and movie industries are among those most harmed by piracy, numerous celebrities have endorsed the Megaupload site, including Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and rappers P. Diddy and Will.i.am.

Megaupload was estimated at one point to be the 13th most frequently visited site on the Internet, according to the indictment. The site claims to have about 50 million daily visits.

Justice Department officials said Thursday that the timing of its indictment had nothing to do with a debate this week on Capitol Hill over legislation that takes aim at online piracy.

Nevertheless, the federal action angered hackers, escalating a growing battle between Washington and the Web’s power brokers, both legitimate and illicit.

Internet companies say the proposed legislation would give too much power to law enforcement to shut down Web sites, and some cited the Justice Department’s actions on Thursday as evidence.

This week, Wikipedia, Google and other major Web sites displayed their influence when they blacked out their sites or encouraged users to protest the bills. Their efforts, which persuaded some lawmakers to drop their support of the measures, overcame a traditional lobbying effort by Hollywood and other media companies.

On Thursday, hours after federal officials unsealed their indictment, a loosely affiliated group of hackers known as Anonymous said it had shut down the Justice Department’s site and was taking aim at lawmakers and agencies in Washington as well as media companies that had supported the anti-piracy legislation.

Through Twitter and other affiliations, Anonymous vowed to go after the Web sites of the White House, FBI, the U.S. Copyright Office and the Motion Picture Association of America, among others.

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