(If this article surprises anyone, then you just haven’t been paying attention… to anything. Ever.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Federal employees used government credit cards to pay for lingerie, gambling, iPods, Internet dating services, and a $13,000 steak-and-liquor dinner, according to a new audit from the Government Accountability Office, which found widespread abuses in a purchasing program meant to improve bureaucratic efficiency. The study, released by Senate lawmakers yesterday, found that nearly half the “purchase card” transactions it examined were improper, either because they were not authorized correctly or because they did not meet requirements for the cards’ use. The overall rate of problems “is unacceptably high,” the audit found.

The GAO also found that agencies could not account for nearly $2 million worth of items identified in the audit — including laptop computers, digital cameras and, at the Army, more than a dozen computer servers worth $100,000 each.

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), who requested the study along with Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), said that money “intended to pay for critical infrastructure, education and homeland security is instead being spent on iPods, lingerie and socializing.”

“Too many government employees have viewed purchase cards as their personal line of credit,” Coleman said. “It’s time to cut up their cards and start over.”

I was delighted at how easy this was to stumble upon: A Practical Guide for Reviewing Government Purchase Card Programs A nice little pdf pamphlet that kindly goes over the processes of government purchase cards with fun Microsoft Word clip-art. Fancy.

Why not just cut up the cards and be done with it? Why bother to “start over”?
I suppose, while there’s still tax dollars coming in, why the hell not?!
Oh, yea, and throw in some proposed legislation while you’re at it: The Government Credit Card Abuse Prevention Act.

(All fixed!)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 8:35 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.