Posted on 09/27/2015 9:05:10 PM PDT by bkopto
As a federal employee at Arlington National Cemetery, Bobby Bennett Harris was authorized two fuel cards to maintain vehicles assigned to the nation’s most famous burial site.
But he got caught using those cards to fill up his personal SUV. What tripped him up?
One of the cards that paid for gasoline was assigned to an all-electric vehicle. Oops.
“Yes, that was an obvious sign,” Eric Radwick, special agent for the General Services Administration, deadpanned in an interview with Watchdog.org.
In April, Harris agreed to a plea deal with federal prosecutors in Virginia for theft of government property — two years of supervised probation, nine days of confinement and a $5,000 fine and restitution for the $5,354 he acknowledged stealing by using the gas cards.
Harris’ case may be noteworthy for his blunder, but, unfortunately, it’s hardly unusual.
The Office of the Inspector General at GSA has closed out 260 fleet card cases and recovered more than $2.4 million in federal taxpayer money between 2010 and 2014, but specialists in how to crack down on fraud say the real figure is probably much higher.
(Excerpt) Read more at watchdog.org ...
Why was a few fuel card assigned to an all-electric vehicle in the first place?
“In April, Harris agreed to a plea deal with federal prosecutors in Virginia for theft of government property — two years of supervised probation, nine days of confinement and a $5,000 fine and restitution for the $5,354 he acknowledged stealing by using the gas cards. “
I don’t see a firing in there.
Back around 2011 timeframe, some financial audit came up with a Homeland Security group in DC. Money-wise, they were OK, but the audit guys looked at the number of employees (roughly 400-500 people) and the fact that they had over 300 vehicles leased to the organization.
After 9-11 and the creation of this particular group...the management convinced themselves that they would be well-suited to authorize one leased vehicle for each employee, and they would use this vehicle during a national crisis....even if the crisis wasn’t in DC but half-way across the US. Then they convinced themselves that they could let each guy drive the car back and forth to home, and have the fuel card for refueling the car.
Tremendous amount of money for a highly abused idea. The audit guys finally convinced the head to give up the leased cars, and they just kept a dozen-odd vehicle for internal usage. No one was punished but millions were wasted over a number of years for this approved situation.
I see a union in there...
Nor a rights stomping felony, they probably misdemeanored him.
A fish rots from the head down.
I noticed that as well. Probably not.
this is nothing compared to gov. “telework”
Yes, there are rules but no accountability at all.
4 days a pay period employees can stay home and do little to nothing.
Did he have to use annual leave for the two weeks he will spend in lockup, or will it be counted as admin leave?
So why not have them drive their personal vehicle, submit a mileage log and reimburse them according to the Federal deduction rate.
No lease, let them carry their own insurance, and pay for their own gas, and log their mileage like the rest of us do.
Otherwise, the tax deduction for the rest of us isn't high enough.
fuel card for electric car, they do not give electricity away now that Obama has closed all the coal fired plants
When “charging it”, means charge it.
Every GSA is assigned a unique card - generally tied to the tags in some form or fashion.
It is used for routine maintenance, oil changes, turn signal lamps, wipers, etc. so that all costs associated with a vehicle are uniquely accountable.
Even an electric needs some maintenance.
In April, Harris agreed to a plea deal with federal prosecutors in Virginia for theft of government property
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But, Huma Abedin, Hillary’s close assistant, bilked $10,000 out of the Government by “double-dipping” and it was decided that it was all a mistake and no law was broken so, she was allowed to just pay it back. What’s wrong with this picture?
Small fry government thief takes $5k, gets caught. Big fish bribes foreigners for millions to provide special deals under State Dept, runs for President.
naturally. protected class. Imagine if you or i stole $5,000.
Equal Protection Clause, and all that......
There is a SOP for fleet vehicles with the federal government.
Every month, the milage on the vehicle is compared to the number of gallons of fued dispensed on the card assigned to that vehicle. If the observed miles per gallon is less than the expected MPG for that type of vehicle, the card is audited.
This is not rocket science.
When Christine Todd Whitman took over as Governor in New Jersey, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection had a 1:1 ratio of cars to non-clerical employees. Everybody pretty much took “their” car home at the end of the day, and treated it like a personal vehicle. When you passed by DEP headquarters, the parking lot was a sea of orange Chrysler K-Cars that went on and on.
Whitman instituted a policy that nobody would be permitted to take cars home at the end of the day. That was all it took. The DEP cut the number of cars by 90% within a year, because they did not want to bear the cost of maintaining such a large fleet.
As soon as somebody puts a car key on their own personal keyring, it becomes “their” car, and it doesn’t matter what it says on the license plate or the door decal. By simply assigning cars at random, day to day, nobody has a “personal” car and fleet costs can be reduced by half, at a minimum.
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