Your Tax Dollars at Work

[EdWort]

Ya gotta love some Government Employees stealing from every one of us who pays taxes.

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/Purchase_Cards.tt

 

[Warped04]

That's just great. I'll remember that next time I see the Forest Service running around town. I'll do a spot check on their CC's.

 

[Arneba28]

"Department of State--$360 in women's underwear and lingerie for use during jungle training by trainees of a druge enforcement program in Ecuador"

lol..I hope they were camoflage..and silk...and on a woman

 

[homebrewer_99]

Yeah, that news is a little outdated, but...

In actuallity, the credit card they are talking about mostly is called an IMPACT Card that's used by offices/managers for supplies and services, not the general Federal employee credit card that most of us have for travel and meals.

I have never made an inappropriate charge on any of my cards. I said "cards" because they have been American Express, Diner's Club, and now Bank of America. I believe they are going to be changing that one also sometime soon.

Also, for the general Fed employees they are not really "stealing" because we are personally responsible for those charges...it is even attached to our personal credit file/report.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

This article is a little bit misleading. Government credit cards usually don't relieve the card-owner of the requirement to pay the balance. The ones issued to military members are simply to offset travel costs until the government properly pays the member for that travel. In other words, it's a high limit card you can use for extended hotel stays that may be impossible to afford out of your personal budget. At the end of your trip, you file a travel voucher. The government then reimburses your direct deposit account for any appropriate expenses, and you are to use that money to pay the government credit card bill.

If you use the card for unauthorized purchases, the government does not foot the bill. You still receive the bill in the mail, and you still have to pay it. Then you get court-martialed for improperly using a card furnished by the government (because the government pays the annual fees for the cards so that they can be used properly, not so you can have your own, personal high-limit credit line).

 

[ohiobrewtus]

$13,500 for dinner? Man that's some very expensive steaks!

 

[RICLARK]

$13,500 for dinner? Man that's some very expensive steaks!

They had to pull out an over amount before dinner to pay for the hookers.

 

[homebrewer_99]

$13,500 for dinner? Man that's some very expensive steaks!

I beleive the office manager paid for all the employees meals that night...maybe some hookers also...

 

[EdWort]

Yeah, that news is a little outdated, but...

In actuallity, the credit card they are talking about mostly is called an IMPACT Card that's used by offices/managers for supplies and services, not the general Federal employee credit card that most of us have for travel and meals.

I have never made an inappropriate charge on any of my cards. I said "cards" because they have been American Express, Diner's Club, and now Bank of America. I believe they are going to be changing that one also sometime soon.

Also, for the general Fed employees they are not really "stealing" because we are personally responsible for those charges...it is even attached to our personal credit file/report.

Actually, the GAO report is dated March 2008. Here's the first two paragraphs of the report.

What the GAO found

Internal control weaknesses in agency purchase card programs exposed the federal government to fraud, waste, abuse, and loss of assets. When testing internal controls, GAO asked agencies to provide documentation on selected transactions to prove that the purchase of goods or services had been properly authorized and that when the good or service was delivered, an individual other than the cardholder received and signed for it. Using a statistical sample of purchase card transactions from July 1, 2005, through June 30, 2006, GAO estimated that nearly 41 percent of the transactions failed to meet either of these basic internal control standards. Using a second sample of transactions over $2,500, GAO found a similar failure rate—agencies could not demonstrate that 48 percent of these large purchases met the standard of proper authorization, independent receipt and acceptance, or both.

Breakdowns in internal controls, including authorization and independent receipt and acceptance, resulted in numerous examples of fraudulent, improper, and abusive purchase card use. These examples included instances where cardholders used purchase cards to subscribe to Internet dating services, buy video iPods for personal use, and pay for lavish dinners that included top-shelf liquor. The table below shows some of the case studies GAO identified, including one case where a cardholder used the purchase card program to embezzle over $642,000 over a period of 6 years from the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service firefighting fund. This cardholder was sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay full restitution.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Ok, now that I read the portion discussing goods/services, it does sound more like IMPAC purchases vice the personal travel cards I mentioned earlier.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Ok, now that I read the portion discussing goods/services, it does sound more like IMPAC purchases vice the personal travel cards I mentioned earlier.

That's what I said earlier...

 

[Yuri_Rage]

That's what I said earlier...

That's why I agreed with you

 

[zoebisch01]

And they are also misleading because, you don't really know the time span (could have been for the whole fiscal year, etc) or the amount of people in an occurence. It is rather vague. The $360 could have been for dozens of women that got Montezuma's revenge

 

[david_42]

I am very happy I no longer have to deal with government cards. When I was working for Lockheed in NV we had to follow the Govs rules. Except we had an idiot for a business manager. He would disallow travel meals if we went to a restaurant that had a liquor license! Didn't matter if we didn't buy any drinks, he just assumed we got a fake receipt. Huston finally made us fire him, which was tough as his father was a big noise in the EPA and the EPA was our main customer there.