The Environmental Protection Agency admitted Wednesday that it paid a convicted child molester $55,000 to retire because department officials couldn’t fire him, the Washington Examiner reported.
EPA Acting Deputy Administrator Stan Meiberg testified during a House Oversight Committee hearing that the agency attempted to release the employee but the Merit Systems Protection Board in charge of settling personnel overturned the decision.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R, Utah), chairman of the committee, called it "one of the most egregious cases of employee misconduct and misuse of taxpayer dollars."
"It's just pretty stunning…we're not protecting the American taxpayer and we're not protecting the employees who have to sit next to this freak of a pervert," he said.
The agency currently has 90 employee misconduct cases pending, the assistant inspector general for the EPA testified.
Other cases detailed during the hearing included an EPA contractor who conceded to watching porn during work for up to two hours a day for 18 years before he was fired, according to the Washington Examiner. Another employee meanwhile was convicted of stealing office equipment worth thousands of dollars, yet still holds a job with the agency.
"Nobody gets fired. Most people who get out retire," Rep. John Mica (R, Fla.) said during the hearing. "Civil service was not set up to protect these folks, it was set up to protect folks from political motivation."