Administrative leave is an excused  absence without loss of pay or charge to another type of leave. Over the Past 5 Fiscal Years, More than 100 DHS Employees Were on Administrative Leave for Personnel Matters for 1 Year or More

Between fiscal years 2011 and 2015, DHS placed 116 employees on  administrative leave for personnel matters for 1 year or more, with a total  estimated salary cost of $19.8 million during the same period, as shown  in table 1. DHS placed the majority of these employees (69 employees  or 59 percent) on administrative leave for matters related to misconduct  allegations, according to DHS data. For example, as of September 30,  2015, a law enforcement agent at a DHS component had been on  administrative leave for over 3 years while under investigation for  allegations of criminal and administrative misconduct. Of the 116 DHS  employees on administrative leave for at least 1 year between fiscal years  2011 through 2015, 28 employees (24 percent) faced matters related to  fitness for duty and 19 employees (or 16 percent) faced matters related to  security clearances. Prior to proposing an adverse  action, such as suspension or removal, an agency often conducts an  investigation. Specifically, DHS ultimately  returned to duty 32 employees (28 percent), separated from the agency  more than half (59 percent) of the employees, and put on indefinite  suspension 2 employees (2 percent), according to DHS data. Numerous Factors Affect the Length of Administrative Leave

Several factors can contribute to the length of time an employee is on  administrative leave for personnel matters. Factors contributing to the  time an employee is on administrative leave include (1) adverse action  legal procedural requirements and the length of time needed for  completing investigations related to misconduct, fitness for duty, or  security clearance issues; (2) limited options other than administrative  leave; and (3) agency inefficiencies in resolving administrative leave  cases as expeditiously as possible. These factors are described below  with examples from the DHS case files we reviewed where the employee  was on administrative leave for 1 year or more. For example, in a particularly  long and complex misconduct investigation, component officials said the  third-party investigation (by the DHS OIG) took over 2 years to complete,  including over 50 interviews conducted abroad. During this time, the employee remained on administrative  leave. Component officials said they would modify their  policies and procedures as necessary to ensure compliance with the  requirements of the DHS policy. Requiring elevated management approval for longer periods of  use. Routine reporting on administrative leave use to component and  DHS management for increased visibility. Finally, conducting evaluations of DHS’s  administrative leave policy may help ensure DHS’s administrative leave  policy and procedures are effective in reducing the use of administrative  leave—one of the intended goals of the new policy—and ensuring the use  is proper and justified. While the reporting requirements in DHS’s new  administrative leave policy should help increase DHS and component  awareness regarding the use of such leave and will allow for regular  monitoring, the policy does not require a more comprehensive separate  evaluation of the effectiveness of the policy and related procedures. Once  the DHS policy and procedures have been in place and administrative  leave routinely monitored, a separate evaluation of the policy and  procedures can help the department identify and share effective  components practices for managing administrative leave as well as make  adjustments needed to help ensure proper and limited use of  administrative leave across DHS. Recommendation for Executive Action

To ensure that the department’s administrative leave policy is working as  intended, we recommend that the Secretary of Homeland Security direct  the Chief Human Capital Officer to conduct evaluations of the  department’s policy and related procedures to identify successful  practices, potential inefficiencies, and necessary policy and procedural  adjustments, and to share the evaluation results across the department. In its comments,  DHS concurred with the recommendation in the report and described  planned actions to address it. Appendix I: Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Employees on Administrative Leave for 3 Months or More between Fiscal Years 2011 and 2014 by Component

To present more detailed information on DHS’s use of administrative  leave, and to help verify the reliability of the information we obtained from  DHS, we analyzed data from the Office of Personnel Management’s  (OPM) Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI) system on DHS  employees on at least 3 months of administrative leave between fiscal  years 2011 and 2014.
Why GAO Did This Study

Federal agencies have the discretion to authorize administrative leave—an excused absence without loss of pay or charge to leave—for personnel matters, such as when investigating employees for misconduct allegations. In October 2014, GAO reported on the use of administrative leave in the federal government. GAO found that, between fiscal years 2011 and 2013, 263 federal employees were on this type of leave for 1 year or more during this 3-year period. Of these, 71 were DHS employees.
GAO was asked to examine DHS's use of administrative leave across directorates, offices, and components (DHS components). This report describes (1) the number of DHS employees who were on administrative leave for 1 year or more for personnel matters from fiscal years 2011 through 2015, (2) the factors that contribute to the length of time employees are on administrative leave, and (3) the extent to which DHS has policies and procedures for managing such leave. GAO used data from DHS and the Office of Personnel Management, reviewed DHS policies and procedures, interviewed DHS officials, and reviewed information on selected cases of DHS employees placed on administrative leave. Cases were selected based on length of leave, reason for using leave, and DHS component, among other things.

What GAO Found

Between fiscal years 2011 and 2015, 116 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees were on administrative leave for personnel matters for 1 year or more, with a total estimated salary cost of $19.8 million for this period. Of these 116 employees on administrative leave:
69 employees (59 percent) were for matters related to misconduct allegations,
28 employees (24 percent) were for matters related to fitness for duty issues, and
19 employees (or 16 percent) were for matters related to security clearance investigations.
As of September 30, 2015, DHS reported that of these 116 employees:
68 employees (59 percent) were separated from the agency,
32 employees (28 percent) were back on duty,
2 employees (2 percent) were on indefinite suspension, and
14 employees (12 percent) remained on administrative leave.
Several factors can contribute to the length of time an employee is on administrative leave for personnel matters, such as certain legal procedural steps that must be completed before suspending or removing an employee, or time needed for completing investigations. For example, in one particularly long and complex misconduct investigation, an employee was on administrative leave for over 2 years while investigating officials conducted over 50 interviews abroad.
In September 2015, DHS issued an administrative leave policy to ensure proper and limited use of administrative leave across the department. The policy clarifies when such leave is proper, elevates the level of management approval needed for longer periods of leave, and requires quarterly reporting of leave use to component heads and the Chief Human Capital Officer. Component policies and procedures varied prior to the DHS policy; however, component officials stated they would make changes needed to comply with the new policy. Federal internal control standards call for agencies to conduct routine monitoring and separate evaluations to ensure agency controls are effective, and to share their results. While the quarterly reports required under DHS's policy provide routine monitoring information, the policy does not address how DHS will evaluate the effectiveness of the policy and related procedures or how DHS will share lessons learned. DHS officials said they plan to learn from reviewing quarterly reports, but agreed evaluations could be valuable in assessing policy effectiveness. Evaluations of DHS's administrative leave policy can help the department identify effective practices for managing administrative leave, as well as agency inefficiencies that increase the time employees spend on such leave. Sharing evaluation results with components may help ensure DHS's administrative leave policy and procedures are effective, and are achieving the intended result of reducing leave use.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends that DHS evaluate the results of its administrative leave policy and share the evaluation results with the department's components. DHS concurred with the recommendation.