Executive branch agencies have settled dozens of sexual harassment cases involving federal workers in recent years, but the resulting taxpayer-funded payments are shrouded in mystery.
Despite a 2002 law aimed at improving federal accountability in discrimination cases, the system for tracking sexual harassment payments in the executive branch is almost as opaque and bureaucratic as the one governing Congress, where payouts similarly lack transparency — a setup that obscures the extent of workplace problems and allows for little oversight of how taxpayer money is spent, according to a POLITICO analysis.