A new report released by the Justice Department has revealed that some U.S. marshals may have been abusing the overtime pay system in recent years, significantly inflating staff time and attendance. The report found that many employees recorded more than 1,000 hours of overtime every year, earning over $35,000 each in extra fees.

On of the subjects of investigation fraudulently recorded an average of 1,673 overtime hours each year. This resulted in the employee earning $68,331 in overtime - the actual salary of that employee was listed at $62,050.

Over the past several years, the USMS has made efforts to decrease fraudulent overtime hours. The efforts have, in large part, worked. In 2009, the department used $2.7 million in overtime fees, while in 2011, that figure dropped to $1.5 million.

The report found that current methods of determining overtime pay were subjective and unreliable.

"Supervisors told us they primarily relied on their experience and intuition to determine the number of weekday overtime shifts in the cell block," said the report.

These intuitive decisions often resulted in overstaffing, leading to exorbitant levels of overtime payments, or understaffing, which can negatively affect the level of safety of employees.

The Marshals Service is expected to comply with all recommendations the report has made to deter fraudulent overtime payments.

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