IG probe reveals improprieties at Treasury

From soliciting prostitution to accepting improper gifts, new documents released by the Treasury Department's inspector general outlines examples of improp...

New documents released by the Treasury Department’s inspector general find examples of impropriety at the agency, from an employee soliciting prostitutes while at work to an examiner accepting free golf games.

The documents were available on GovernmentAttic.org, which posts government documents released per Freedom of Information Act requests. The story was first reported by The Hill.

The redacted documents did not identify the employees.

One finding was a Treasury employee in the Office of Thrift Supervision had used work IT resources to solicit prostitution on Craigslist. The IG found the employee met with prostitutes on three occasions. The employee, a human resources specialist with 36 years of federal service, retired in Oct. 2010.

The IG also found a national bank examiner had violated the agency’s ethics regulations by accepting free meals and golf games from a bank he supervised. The employee “stressed that he was always objective and professional” in performing his official duties, according to the IG memo.

The OTS has since merged with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

A spokesman for the OCC said these “are isolated incidences and do not diminish the highly ethical behavior of thousands of other OCC employees, according to Reuters. “OCC employees, and in particular examiners, are held to ethical standards that go beyond those applicable to government employees generally,” the spokesman said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

In an emailed statement to Federal News Radio, a Treasury spokesman said the department expects its employees to follow its ethics policy.

“As with any large organization, issues of misconduct occasionally arise,” the spokesman said. “When that happens at Treasury, we act promptly and decisively to address them. The OIG moved aggressively to investigate the isolated instances of misconduct referenced in these documents, most of which were brought to the OIG’s attention by bureau management.”

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