Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has done an audit of Social Security's expenditures for training conferences run by the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ), an employee union that represents many, but far from all, Administrative Law Judges (ALJs).
I would say that it looks as if OIG was looking for reasons why the agency should discontinue its expenditures for these training conferences. The OIG found what it regarded as adequate reason to recommend this. The bottom line is that Social Security intends to do this training in house.
Commissioner Astrue has bitterly attacked ALJs and the AALJ. This outcome cannot be a surprise to anyone who has followed the state of labor relations at Social Security under Michael Astrue.
I expect that the AALJ will press to undo this decision if the next President is a Democrat and Michael Astrue decides not to try to hang on as Commissioner under a Democratic President.
I would say that it looks as if OIG was looking for reasons why the agency should discontinue its expenditures for these training conferences. The OIG found what it regarded as adequate reason to recommend this. The bottom line is that Social Security intends to do this training in house.
Commissioner Astrue has bitterly attacked ALJs and the AALJ. This outcome cannot be a surprise to anyone who has followed the state of labor relations at Social Security under Michael Astrue.
I expect that the AALJ will press to undo this decision if the next President is a Democrat and Michael Astrue decides not to try to hang on as Commissioner under a Democratic President.
As has been pointed out on the ALJDiscussion board, the OIG report completely ignores the fact that if SSA does the training seminars in-house, it will have to reimburse the travel expenses of the attending ALJ's - which it has never done before.
ReplyDelete"We also found that some of the AALJ conference expenditures were not related to the training of attendees. For example, the union spent approximately $29,000 on an evening president's reception and a banquet, which included about $2,900 in "liquor sales" expenses. The AALJ spent another $3,200 on banquet entertainment, which included a mariachi band and dancers. While we believe that some of the food and beverage costs may have been appropriate if it was provided during the training conference, we do not believe the $32,200 spent on evening food and entertainment, or 38 percent of the AALJ expenditures, can be related to the training costs. Therefore, these activities should not have been reimbursed by SSA."
ReplyDeleteSSA hasn't ever provided even coffee and donut for any training I had to attend.