A scathing audit finds that 23% of federal employees were overpaid at the Commerce Department, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars

Federal telecommuters have been grossly overpaid because they falsely claimed they live in expensive metropolitan areas, when in reality they live in smaller, less expensive locations.

An audit initiated by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, made public exclusively to DailyMail.com, finds that 23 percent of Commerce Department employees surveyed lied about where they lived to receive higher wages than they deserve.

The scathing report from the agency’s inspector general found that a quarter of the department’s employees investigated were unfairly given a raise, costing taxpayers an average additional $6,100 per overpaid teleworker.

And according to Ernst, the agency refuses to recover the unearned funds.

“Just as I thought, Biden’s bureaucrats are overpaid and undertaxed, while the American people are overworked and overburdened,” Ernst told DailyMail.com in a statement.

For example, one of the employees investigated was overpaid by more than $10,000, according to the audit findings.

“How can the Department of Commerce claim that they are competent enough to direct our country’s economic growth and job creation when they can’t even be responsible for tracking where their own employees are, what they get paid, or what they do? ?’ continued Ernst.

“Either way, these wasted funds are theft from taxpayers. I will continue to demand that agencies take responsibility and foot the bill for these fat bureaucrats so this surplus can go back into the pockets of the American people.”

The excess salaries these Commerce Department officials receive are the result of employees who have failed to adjust their local wages.

In the sample of workers examined by the agency’s inspector general, 23 percent had moved to areas with lower wages, but still received higher salaries for workers who lived in areas with higher costs.

What makes matters worse is that the department says they can’t recover the overpayments because they don’t have the processes in place to do so.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, demanded the investigation after discovering last year that no federal agency was using even half of its available work space, meaning federal employees weren’t coming to work in the office.

Ernst previously revealed in Decemver that no federal agency had an occupancy rate of more than 50 percent of office space between January and March 2023

The Department of Commerce, shown above, was at the center of the investigation

“The agencies do not have adequate controls in place to ensure that duty station changes are initiated and processed in a timely manner,” the Commerce Department admitted to Ernst.

The findings come as The Iowan continues its crusade to hold government agencies accountable.

Since August 2023, the Republican has been working to uncover how telecommuters across the 24 federal departments and agencies have been able to serve taxpayers.

In December, Ernst uncovered a shocking report showing that nearly four years after the COVID pandemic closed many offices to in-person work, no agencies were using at least half the floor space of their many buildings.

The most egregious offenders were Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Social Security Administration, and the Small Business Administration (SBA), all of which had floor space utilization of 10 percent or less in 2023.

That’s a staggering statistic when you consider how federal agencies spend about $2 billion annually to operate and maintain federal office buildings — and more than $5 billion annually on leases.

And the Biden administration previously touted the vacant offices as a way to save on energy costs.

In response to the waste of taxpayer dollars on inflated teleworker salaries and the fact that federal buildings are running out of employees, Ernst introduced a bill earlier this year to provide more oversight of remote government employees.

The “Telework Transparency Act of 2024,” authored by Ernst and Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., would require federal agencies to publicly share their telework policies and better track employees who work from home.

It will also require audits and performance reviews of remote workers.

At least 23 percent of Commerce Department employees investigated by the agency’s inspector general were found to be taking in more money than they were owed because they didn’t tell their employers they had moved to cheaper areas

One of the employees investigated was found to have brought in more than $10,000 in unearned wages

The senators say the bill would also crack down on local pay — compensation based on a worker’s location in the U.S. — to ensure it isn’t abused like the Commerce Department.

The bill has been before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee since mid-March, but no action has been taken since then.

“I will continue to demand that agencies take responsibility and foot the bill for these fat bureaucrats so that this surplus can flow back into the pockets of the American people,” Ernst told DailyMail.com.