Investigations Into Employee Misconduct, Conflicts of Interest Disclosed in EPA Report

摘要

Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Inspector General probed cases involving conflicts of interest, inappropriate relationships and timecard abuse between April and September 2015, according to report released Feb. 16. The agency's "Summary of Closed Employee Integrity Cases" revealed instances where: 1. A senior executive service level supervisor had an inappropriate romantic relationship with a subordinate and attempted to secure a promotion for that person. The executive retired from the agency; 2. Another senior employee participated in an agency matter concerning the environmental review process for the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project while holding $30,000 of stock in the company. The employee was orally admonished and required to undergo ethics counseling; 3. Conflicts of interest arose when an EPA attorney became chairman of an environmental quality board. The employee resigned from the agency during the investigation; and, 4. There was evidence an EPA employee had conducted "business on behalf of two nonprofit organizations." The employee was suspended for two days.