That is bad math, but I wonder if the problem has more to do with poor organization, or even editing. At paragraph 15 we finally get this:

The inspector general agreed that the report did not provide evidence of abuse but noted that investigators identified 214 employees who had questionable rates of sick-leave use, such as taking sick leave on seven or more of the possible 14 Tuesdays after a Monday holiday.

Barr must have realized that the report’s value was in identifying those 214 abusers, not in exposing a widespread problem. Or maybe I’m being too generous.

Journalists are, as a rule, terrible at math. I once wrote a newspaper story with a number like “99.99999 percent” in it. The editor felt that was too long — and decided to go with “almost 99.9 percent” instead.