Posted on 07/24/2003 9:11:46 PM PDT by boycott
USDA credit cards buy tattoos, rock concert tickets, audit finds
Report says 300 employees spent $7.7 million of federal money
By Emily Gersema, Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Agriculture Department employees used government credit cards to pay tuition for bartender school, to buy Ozzy Osbourne concert tickets, lingerie and tattoos and to make a down payment on a car. A random audit by the department's inspector general of just 300 of the 55,000 department employees who carry the government credit cards showed they had charged $7.7 million in personal purchases in six months, from Oct. 1, 2001, to March 31, 2002.
The cards are intended to cover travel expenses, but many were used routinely whether the employees were traveling or not, according to the audit released Friday. Among the uses were paying for 900 purchases at Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target and making car payments.
The cardholders took out $196,000 in cash on the cards, which cost the department more than $137,000 in bank fees, the audit said.
Sometimes workers used the cash to pay off personal debts and then to repay the bank that is on contract to provide the department with the credit card accounts, according to the report.
"As a result, improper charges, if unpaid, could negatively impact the department in the form of lost rebates from the contractor bank if the delinquencies were eventually written off," auditors warned.
They also said that as of December, 1,549 former employees were found to have active cards in their possession.
The auditors found the department has no policy for disciplining workers over the misuse of cards and is inconsistent when it does punish them. In most cases, the agency either suspends the worker for a few days, sends a letter of reprimand, restricts travel or requires the employee to undergo counseling.
Clyde Thompson, the department's associate assistant secretary for administration, agreed with the audit's findings in a written response and said new policies to guard against credit card abuse will be fully implemented by February. Some of the new policies will go into effect by September and November this year, he said. "We also will remind employees that travel card misuse is a serious offense, and USDA will take action against employees who abuse government credit cards," he wrote.
He did not specify the types of penalties that employees would face.
Sen. Charles Grassley, who has criticized the Pentagon for its problems with credit card abuse, said the Agriculture Department has an obligation to take swift action to prevent its workers from misusing cards.
"It's obviously unacceptable for federal employees to use government travel cards to go to bartending college, and it's wrong for employees who don't travel for their government work to use government travel cards," said Grassley, R-Iowa. "The agencies who allow this kind of abuse must be held accountable."
Grassley and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., led an effort last year to include provisions in the Defense Department's budget to prevent credit card abuse.
Last year, audits by the General Accounting Office revealed federal workers have used the cards at adult clubs, brothels, sporting events and to buy jewelry.
The findings prompted the Bush administration in October to cancel thousands of credit cards at the Defense Department. Also, the Education Department blocked payments to thousands of businesses. Paychecks were docked to collect unpaid bills.
The Agriculture Department tried to block payments on certain purchases as the inspector general's office worked on the latest audit. Nevertheless, the auditors said they are still finding instances where the cards were used to buy goods at stores including The Gap, Cigarettes for Less and the Oregon Liquor Store.
(Excerpt) Read more at oaklandtribune.com ...
Does anyone still oppose President Bush's tax cuts? This story was buried in the back of my newspaper a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, the governor of my state, Alabama, has been pushing for a tax increase. I am not really so sure they need anymore of my money.
I find this story appalling.
Damn credit cards. Kinda like SUV's killing people.
I've read that the Department didn't have a policy in place. Therefore, only a reprimand will be issued.
Every single CC user in every agency should be audited, and the administration or Congress need to find a way to have the repeat offenders fired. That is the only way you can change the behavior of these idiot federal wokers. If you slap them on the hand, they'll just keep on doing it. This is a major waste of taxpayer dollars.
Fortunately, counseling is available.
Why would any agency have the need to have a policy in place that outlines approved use for the card?
Any honest person knows the difference.
The missue cited is nothing more than fraud.
The only appropriate action authorities should persue is through the Courts.
Julie Quick, a department spokeswoman, said administrators were informed which cardholders have been misusing the cards and expects them to be reprimanded.
Quick said she isn't aware of whether any employees were fired but said workers are being advised how to use the cards properly.
Also, credit limits have been lowered and cash advances restricted, she said, "but the important point for us is that we've established an across-the-board zero tolerance for misuse of the cards."
Clyde Thompson, the department's associate assistant secretary for administration, agreed to the audit's findings in a written response and said new policies to guard against credit card abuse will be fully implemented by February. Some of the new policies will go into effect by September and November this year, he said.
"We also will remind employees that travel card misuse is a serious offense, and USDA will take action against employees who abuse government credit cards," Thompson wrote. He did not specify the types of penalties that employees would face."
Another link about this story does a better job of addressing the action taken against these criminals:
http://208.62.120.191/ecp/national_ap/article/0,1626,ECP_746_2104783,00.html
These people should spend time in jail. You miss a dime on your taxes and the IRS will be all over it. Meanwhile, things like this are allowed to happen.
I believe that the USDA is where a lot of the government spending on pork projects goes. The same is true for a lot of departments including the Department of Transportation and The Department of Education. I believe that this is pretty much the way our government runs things.
I've always had a problem with the way our government is making select groups wealthy off our taxpayer dollars. The peanut farmer is a good example. The government is making many of them multi-millionaires (via the USDA). The government subsudizes certain groups that I don't consider vital to our national security or our ecomony. Why does our government subsudize peanut farmers that don't create many jobs? Why not subsudize other industries such as the petroleum industry that would create a lot of jobs and get entire regions of the country out of an economic slump?
Do you remember that the people of Afghanistan didn't know what to do with all the peanut butter we sent them? The government has to try to do something with all the peanuts it has bought. An incredible amout of taxpayers dollars are wasted on special interest groups and much of it is funneled through the USDA.
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