The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General is conducting an audit of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Confidential Source Program. The OIG initiated the audit as a result of the OIG’s receipt of numerous allegations regarding the DEA’s handling and use of confidential sources. Its audit work thus far has been seriously delayed by numerous instances of uncooperativeness from the DEA. Nevertheless, it has uncovered several significant issues.
Among other matters, the audit learned that the DEA was providing Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) benefits to confidential informants, yet had not established a process or any controls regarding the awarding of them. The DEA lacked a process for thoroughly reviewing FECA claims for confidential sources or determining eligibility for these benefits. In addition, the DEA did not oversee and ensure that the established pay rate for these sources was proper and inappropriately continued using and paying confidential sources who were also receiving full disability payments through FECA.
In one case, the Inspector General wrote, the DEA paid out more than $1.3 million between 1989 and 2012 to the widow of a killed informant. Payments have been ongoing in other cases since 1974.
In addition, the Inspector General says there is no legal basis for extending compensation benefits intended for federal employees to confidential informants. The law cited by the DEA as justification for the payments, the Inspector General wrote, “does not provide a legal basis for the DEA’s position that its confidential sources were appropriately categorized as non-federal law enforcement officers eligible for FECA benefits.”
In a statement, a Justice Department spokesperson said the DEA “has placed a moratorium on submitting new FECA claims for confidential sources to the Department of Labor.” “DEA has also determined that, although a determination should be based on the facts of each individual case, the presumption should be confidential sources are not ‘employees’ pursuant to FECA and should not be eligible for benefits,” the spokesperson said.