Aide to Senator Stevens performed personal work
 An aide to Senator Ted Stevens performed personal bookkeeping services for the embattled Alaska Republican, according to a report in Thursday's Roll Call.
"Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has used a Senate employee as his personal bookkeeper but does not appear to have paid her for those services out of his own funds, even as the aide collected more than a quarter-million dollars in federal pay," reports the paper's John Stanton.
The aide in question, Barbara Flanders, has worked for the Alaska senator since at least 2004, during which time she collected two major pay raises.
Stevens, a long-serving member of the Senate who is well known for his 'bridge to nowhere' and for calling the Internet 'a series of tubes,' is currently being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service. Flanders has apparently cooperated with the corruption probe.
"Senate rules prohibit any employee from using federal facilities or equipment to conduct personal business for a Member, and federal law bars lawmakers from using the Senate’s payroll to pay for work done that is purely personal in nature.," Stanton notes. "Less clear is whether staff can do time- intensive jobs like bookkeeping or accounting on a pro bono basis for a Member."
The legitimacy of Flanders' work for the Senator may depend on the nature of her work for the committee to which she is assigned.
"It is unclear what function Flanders performs for the Commerce Committee," he notes, adding that the Commerce Committee refused to comment. "She is listed in Senate records as the committee’s “financial clerk,” a designation that does not appear to be used by other committees in the Senate."
The full story can be read by Roll Call subscribers at this link.
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