Federal employees charged millions of dollars for Internet dating, tailor-made suits, lingerie, lavish dinners and other questionable expenses to their government credit cards over 15 months, Congressional auditors say.
A report by the Government Accountability Office, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, examined spending controls across the federal government in 2005 and 2006 after reports of credit-card abuse at some departments.
The review found that nearly 41 percent of roughly $14 billion in purchases — legitimate or questionable — did not follow procedure, because they were unauthorized or improperly received.
In a sample of purchases totaling $2.7 million, the government could not account for hundreds of computers, iPods and cameras worth more than $1.8 million. The Army could not locate computer items making up 16 server configurations, each of which cost nearly $100,000.
The report calls for the General Services Administration and Office of Management and Budget, both of which help administer the credit-card program, to improve accounting, particularly for electronic equipment that could be easily stolen.
Both agencies agreed with parts of the report, but the G.S.A. administrator, Lurita Doan, said that the vast majority of federal employees used their cards properly… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <NY Times>
This is not the first time Lurita Doan has appeared on these pages. Read how she paid a buddy $20000 for a 24 page report HERE. read how she criminally politicized the GSA, using agency resources for GOP partisan purposes HERE, HERE and HERE. No doubt the GOP will claim that this is just a few bad apples, but given the overall corruption of the GSA under the GOP Reich, is it any wonder that employees there have so little respect for that law that $1.8 million out of a $2.7 million sample, that is 67%, was bogus? This is what McConJob and the GOP have to offer. More of the same.
Cross-posted from Politics Plus
