Inspector General finds 'rampant' abuse of remote work under Biden administration

Federal workers under the Biden administration would frequently violate remote work policies, according to a report from the Inspector General of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that was released on Friday.

OPM released a statement on Friday regarding the report, and said that it "uncovered widespread compliance failures and weak internal oversight in the agency's telework and remote work programs during the Biden Administration." The statement was titled, "IG Report Reveals Rampant Telework Abuse Under Biden Administration."

“Under the previous administration, OPM’s telework, and remote work policies were mismanaged and oversight was virtually nonexistent," OPM Acting Director Chuck Ezell said in response to the report. “That era of telework abuse is over. At President Trump’s direction, OPM has restored in-person operations to ensure federal employees are working for the taxpayers.” 

The report uncovered that 58.1 percent of telework employees who were sampled for the report did not meet the requirements for working in-office requirements under the Biden administration.

Around one in three teleworkers (29.7 percent) had agreements to work remotely that had lapsed, 15 percent of remote workers did not have a remote agreement on file, and around 8 percent of workers had timesheets that were not meeting requirements for telework policies.

Although the report did not get into all the reasons for the failures to meet basic policy requirements for remote work, the report gave possible explanations, such as “weak or missing management controls,” “negligence,” and “intentional fraud and abuse.”

“We recommend that if OPM retains or reinstates its telework and remote work programs, OPM MR should develop written procedures detailing their internal controls to ensure compliance with telework and remote work program requirements,” the report stated.