There's something wrong with a system that allows an employee to use vacation time to pay back money she's stolen from her employer.

Former Salem State College administrator Victoria Bradley admits to using her position to take $6,000 from school accounts, and she still has vacation time owed her?

Indeed, according to college spokeswoman Karen Cady, "It's money that had she retired or left to move on to something else, she would be entitled to receive" - even if that "something else" involves the commission of a crime and being fired, apparently.

That's according to the contract with the Association of Professional Administrators. And according to Bradley's lawyer, the money she's owed in unused vacation time after spending six years in her $60,000-a-year job should just about cover the money she's obligated to return to the school under the terms of the plea agreement accepted this week in Salem District Court.

Not a bad deal. Don't blame Bradley, who, according to her lawyer, has had a run of bad luck and is merely exercising her right to make restitution in the most painless way possible. No, blame a system that allows employees at all levels of government to accumulate all kinds of vacation and sick time and spend weeks, months, even years, on the payroll waiting for their cases to be resolved, whether it involves a criminal matter or an application for a disability pension.

It costs taxpayers millions every year. One wonders when they'll finally say enough is enough.