Pay Raise Payback

Recent pay raises awarded to top career executives at three federal agencies were an honest mistake and will be returned to the government, according to an administration official.

Nancy Kichak, associate director for employee services at OPM, said on Tuesday that 220 senior executives at the Energy Department, along with nearly 20 employees at two other federal agencies, will have to pay back performance-based awards they received in December 2010.

Energy last week informed its senior executives that it would revoke performance-based pay raises awarded late last year. According to Kichak, the law prohibits agencies from awarding performance-based increases more than once in a calendar year. The affected executives already received bonuses in January 2010.

Kichak said OPM discovered the error while reviewing a routine data submission and informed Energy of the problem. Energy officials then took corrective action and asked executives to return the overpayments. This hasn't happened in past years, but Energy wasn't trying to duck the pay freeze in awarding its bonuses early, she said.

"I think someone just got their wires crossed," she said. "We just know that they made a mistake. Agencies are allowed to change their performance cycle, so if an agency changes that there are exceptions. So my assumption is they have changed their performance cycle in past and did not carefully read the law."