A whistleblower’s claims are drawing attention to the efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after alleging that one federal employee has apparently gotten away with moving to Florida and still receiving full pay as if he were in the nation’s capital.
The whistleblower reportedly brought this concern to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who is heading up the Senate DOGE Caucus.
The whistleblower alleges that this employee, working at the Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), lives in south Florida and has lived there for years, despite the fact that HUD’s headquarters are in D.C.
The Daily Mail reports that according to the whistleblower the individual in question is Antonio Carraway, who allegedly “still gets paid handsomely” despite living around Port Saint Lucie, Florida:
The person who came forward said this ‘Florida Man’ has been allowed to ‘retire-in-place,’ while earning ‘100 percent taxpayer-funded union time’ (TFUT).
In a letter to Acting HUD Secretary Adrienne Todman exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, Ernst outlined the deceptive misconduct, highlighting receipts showing the man had could have been living there since 2020.
The report also indicates that Carraway has a part-time job in real estate.
“Perhaps he conducts the entirety of his real estate business outside of the hours for which he draws a federal paycheck. Somehow, I doubt it,” Ernst said in the letter.
In a statement to the Daily Mail, Ernst said, “Florida man moonlighting as a ‘real estate professional’ while allegedly slacking at his day job is just one of the bureaucrats that I’m highlighting this Christmas season.”
“It sounds like a comedic headline, but taxpayers are the butt of the joke as federal employees continue to get caught doing everything but their work,” she continued, adding, “Americans will be getting the last laugh though. Come next year, I will be giving bureaucrats a choice – do your job or be fired.”
The news comes as Ernst assists in carrying out the vision of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy at DOGE, looking to slash government waste. One of the aspects Ernst is zoning in on is the inefficiencies and waste related to telework. She released some of her findings in a report titled “Out of Office: Bureaucrats on the beach and in bubble baths but not in office buildings,” which found this is a widespread issue.
“A number of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees have also been busted fraudulently collecting Washington, D.C. locality pay while living elsewhere,” her report revealed:
One senior USAID employee lived in Florida for the duration of her employment but used an office supply store in Virginia for work-related correspondences to deceptively collect D.C. locality pay. Despite being required to report to the USAID office in Washington, D.C. twice every pay period, she was permitted to violate the telework agreement by her supervisor.
When questioned by OIG special agents, the supervisor denied knowing where the employee lived. The OIG found evidence, however, showing “the supervisor knew the employee lived in Florida and was using an address in Virginia to receive the higher locality pay.” Criminal charges against both the employee and the supervisor were dropped and the employee retired.
As a result of these findings, Ernst offered the REMOTE Act, which would “require agencies to use software to gather concrete data on the adverse impacts of telework in the federal government by monitoring bureaucrats’ computer use, requiring agency reports, and providing key information for individual performance reviews,” per her press release.
“The bureaucrat class was given an inch during COVID with ‘temporary’ telework, and they have taken a mile at the expense of taxpayers,” Ernst said in a statement released December 11.
“Holding Washington accountable starts with ensuring federal employees aren’t ‘working’ from bubble baths or the golf course on the taxpayer’s dime,” she continued.
“It’s past time to transform government agencies, so our veterans, seniors, and all Americans receive high-quality care and customer service,” she added.
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