Posted on 06/09/2009 8:54:54 AM PDT by kellynla
An employee of the Federal Aviation Administration charged a $3,700 eye surgery on his government credit card, according to a report on government credit card usage completed last month by the Congressional Research Service.
This FAA official may have been outdone, however, by a Defense Department official who sought and received reimbursement for thirteen airline tickets worth almost $10,000 that he never purchased, or the State Department official who bought an unauthorized first-class ticket to Hawaii on his government charge card.
"Among some of the more egregious examples of card misuse identified by auditors are a Federal Aviation Administration employee who charged $3,700 for laser eye surgery to his travel card, a Department of Defense employee who requested and received reimbursements for 13 airline tickets totaling almost $10,000 that he did not purchase, and a Department of State employee who took an unauthorized trip to Hawaii on a first-class ticket," said the Congressional Research Service report.
State Department officials, in fact, have become accustomed to travelling in relative luxury on tickets charged on government credit cards. According to the Congressional Research Service report, almost half of the airline tickets purchased by the State Department, an audit discovered, were for first-class or business-class seats. Government protocol, however, strictly limits when such seats can be legitimately purchased by department personnel.
These rules require that government employees travel in coach except under certain special circumstances, including when the trip is more than 14 hours in duration or when for security reasons the traveler needs to go in business or first class.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
I work for the VA, and at my facility, Travel cards are audited all the time and signed off by superiors. It would be very hard to do that here.
They all most likely do this. In a “deep” recession (as Obama says- JUST CALL IT A depression)these things will be forefront in ticking people off. They are all out of control.
a Department of Defense employee who requested and received reimbursements for 13 airline tickets totaling almost $10,000 that he did not purchase, and a Department of State employee who took an unauthorized trip to Hawaii on a first-class ticket,” said the Congressional Research Service report.
A spokesperson for those named above said, “This is outrageous. They thought they were using their own credit cards and became very concerned when the charges didn’t show up on their personal bills. It was simply an oversight which will be corrected. We can then move on and not look to the past.”/s
Couldn’t he see this was abusive?
Must keep an eye on this kind of thing.
Among some of the more egregious examples of card misuse.Bet the list is a long one.
I say punishment should be an eye for an eye.
Ho, ho, ho.
Ha, ha, ha.
LOL LOL LOL
Seriesly.
Well heck, they have to spend all that democrat and Obama money somehow. You know, the money that was stolen from our retirements and our children and grandchildren’s futures.
Yes, some of the very same money that should have gone out in tax breaks so that small businessmen may have grown and hired people that are now out of jobs and losing everything they have worked for. I mean, some of the same money that could have been used to encourage, “Drill here, Drill now”, treatment plants and nuclear facilities.
This went far beyond “unauthorized”. These expenditures amount to Felony theft and these crooks should be arrested and charged accordingly.
I would be willing to bet all of my treasure that these kinds of thefts are being committed all over our country... in my larger amounts.
I am not clear on this...did the govt. actually PAY for his surgery? I once had a corporate Amex card, and they were okay with me making personal purchases on it so long as I declared and reimbursed them.
At least he was smart enough to NOT wait for Obamacare.
Folks were getting suspicious, but it was a co-worker who blew the lid off it.
Depends on the type of card. A purchase card is like a debit card. The purchaser uses the card, the merchant is paid by the issuing bank, and the government usually sends immediate payment to the card issuing bank (BofA, USBank, etc...).
Travel cards are issued to the employee, and are the employee's responsibility. You use the travel card, you are responsible for making the payment, due in full by the date on the statement. Personal use in either case is not allowed.
Claiming reimbursement for 13 tickets that were never purchased was not a mistake............
Universal health care. The “official” will send the card on to you, if you need it.
I think most FedGov cards are issued and billed to the individual user and they are responsible for documenting their charges with someone in a purchasing office.
I deal with FedGov agencies in business and the procedure varies from office to office, but there is usually a "P-Card Program Supervisor" who is responsible for verifying the employee's charges comply with law and the agency's policies.
There are two Dept. of Interior employees who also have businesses of their own that use the same type of products & services they purchase as government employees, and I watch them extra close myself. One of them I'd trust to the end of the earth, the other not so much. But I never hear from their purchasing officers about any of their charges and I don't think that's good. On the other hand, the USDA purchasing officers question just about everything.
Golly, corruption at all levels of our corrupt government.
Who would have thought it???
So, the empty suit charged the tax payers $250,000.00 for a diner date and $14,000,000.00 for his families vacation which included their fish and chip lunch and its tip.
...then we all go back to our lives and nothing changes.
There IS no accountability in our government, so save your outrage. Government employees can do whatever they @#$% well please.
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