Probes Find Improper Use of Religious Comp Time

Congressional investigators said they may demand repayments if employees were allowed to accrue too much religious leave. Stupak has asked the Department of Health and Human Services' inspector general to determine whether laws were broken.

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While the FDA is auditing past problems and tightening its practices, it has no plans to review whether its 10,000 employees use the leave for religious observances. "We don't have the resources in agencies to determine whether an employee took religious comp time and then went golfing," Holden said.

That is exactly what happened at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, R.I., according to a 2002 naval inspector general's report. It found that three senior managers had been allowed to accrue hundreds of hours of religious leave and use it in lieu of vacation time for almost a decade. By the time they were caught using the time for recreational purposes, the workers had each banked enough leave to be eligible for payouts of $195,000 to $250,000 when they retired, investigators found. They were stripped of the excess leave as part of the inquiry.

"The facts of this case suggested a pre-meditated, conspiratorial effort to defraud the government," the inspector general concluded.

When one of the workers was confronted with evidence that he had taken a lengthy European vacation using religious comp time, he sought to justify it by saying he "had a bonding experience with a half brother that lives in Germany" and "we spent some time visiting Zurich and the various churches," according to transcripts of the investigators' interviews obtained by The Post.

Another worker, a Catholic, used religious comp time at least nine times for medical appointments or to take a day off after a federal holiday, the report said.

The Navy ultimately decided not to prosecute the workers, who retired. Meanwhile, the colleague who blew the whistle on their conduct said he was moved from his job and placed temporarily on leave without pay. Eventually he retired and reached a settlement with the Navy over alleged retaliation.

"The Navy held this all so close and didn't open it up and allow for scrutiny," said Peter Duffy, the whistle-blower. "So Congress and the media and other agencies are at a loss about what went on. . . . It is very possible under the right set of circumstances that these kinds of abuses could happen again."