A new Inspector General report has found that former President Joe Biden's administration allowed rampant abuse of remote work by federal employees.
The new report, released by the Office of Personnel Management on Friday, details a culture lacking any oversight or effective management of remote workers in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that led to massive numbers of workers staying home in both the public and private sector.
Acting OPM Director Chuck Ezell issued a statement saying, "Under the previous administration, OPMʼs telework and remote work policies were mismanaged and oversight was virtually nonexistent. That era of telework abuse is over. At President Trumpʼs direction, OPM has restored in-person operations to ensure federal employees are working for the taxpayers.”
President Donald Trump has made optimization of the federal government a priority in his 2nd term in the White House, and he plans to both cut the federal workforce down significantly while ensuring the remaining workers are efficient.
The Biden administration didn't seem to care about ensuring taxpayer dollars were spent well and allowed employees to abuse lax requirements for years.
The new report from the OPM confirmed that an astounding 58.1% of employees sampled failed to meet minimum requirements for in-office work under President Biden's leadership.
Furthermore, the report found that nearly one-third (29.7%) had lapsed telework agreements, 21% had discrepancies in their paperwork, and 15% did not have any approved agreements on file, likely due to intentional fraud or abuse.
The picture painted by the report is one of fraud and waste that the Biden administration was facilitating.
Shortly after being sworn in, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies and departments to “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements” and return all federal workers to the office.
That executive order does give department heads the power to carve exemptions from return-to-work policies, but it's clear that the Trump administration wants federal workers in the office and working hard for their taxpayer-funded paychecks.
Those employees who are allowed to work from home will be subject to new internal controls and compliance reviews to ensure there is no fraud or abuse of the system.
If you ask many Americans, President Biden never had a positive legacy. However, these continued discoveries of corruption and general mismanagement by the Biden administration only serve to hack down any legacy that Biden may have had with more centrist voters.
This report is further vindication for President Trump, who has long accused Biden of being incompetent and mismanaging the federal government and costing taxpayers billions.
The Trump administration is prioritizing taxpayers and will end every source of waste to cut back on the ballooning debt that threatens to swamp the nation.
