Watchdog probes possible $250,000 bonus to EPA worker

By Pete Kasperowicz, Pete Kasperowicz

Published December 20, 2015

The Environmental Protection Agency's Inspector General said Thursday that the agency's chief financial officer gave an employee $9,000 in bonus awards less than three months after she was hired.

The IG said in April, it got an anonymous tip that the CFO was trying to pay a $250,000 bonus to the new hire, a senior director working out of North Carolina.

According to the IG report, the CFO wanted to "pay a $250,000 bonus to a newly hired employee because it was unable to provide relocation expenses for the employee."

Relocation awards have become a hot issue over the last few weeks, as senior employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs were caught receiving relocation awards worth several hundred thousand dollars.