**JOHN STOSSEL FRIDAY ON 20/20 WITH ACCOUNTING SCANDAL: DoD CREDIT CARDS**

ABC News ^ | Oct. 3, 2002 | John Stossel

[madfly]

 

----- Original Message -----

From: ABC TV Stossel Reporting

To: ABC TV Stossel Reporting

Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 5:28 PM

Subject: JOHN STOSSEL'S "GIVE ME A BREAK" THIS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4,200210 P.M. EST

This Friday's "Give Me A Break" is about an another accounting scandal.

The accounting at an institution is so lax, employees used investors' money to buy engagement rings, Elvis photos, women's lingerie, jewelry, escort services, and breast implants.

The "investors" in this case are you, because the "company" is the defense department.

It happened because of the defense department's ludicrous policy of giving out credit cards to almost anyone.

The idea was to make government purchases more efficient, but an application form the government uses says if an employee would rather not have a credit check (if they have a horrendous credit record), that's no problem .  They can  just check "box B" and Bank of America is "not authorized" to check their credit rating.   The employee can still get a government credit card.

Don't you wish your employer would let you do that?

Confronted about an employee who spent $400 of your money on a designer briefcase from the Coach store, Ernest Valdes, of the Navy, said, "she probably made an honest mistake and happened to be at Nordstrom's and purchased that bag. I think she'll do better next time."

Next time? Right. It's not as if she was fired. Government rarely fires anybody. One Navy employee used her credit card to buy $12,000 in personal items. What happened to her? She was promoted!

The defense department has a history of financial woes.  It cannot account for over a trillion dollars--that's nearly $4000  for every American.

When private companies squander investors money we insist there be consequences.

But in government, almost nothing ever changes.

Give Me A Break.

Please include your name and location when you write, so that I can quote you here, or on the air. (If you don't want us to use your name, tell us, and we won¹t.) My e-mail address is stossel@abc.com

 

[HogFixer]

The GPC is not the same as the credit card. The CC was first issued to keep the military from having to keep large quantities of cash on hand. In the 80's, I would go to finance and get $2K a month in cash for a business trip, (TDY).

At first we were given Diners Club, crappy card, no one accepted it. Next was AMEX, no problems, but I heard they charged too much. Now we have B of A master card. I have a $10K charge limit and a $500 / month ATM limit.

Each purchase or transaction is eventually reviewed by the squadron budget people. We are not supposed to use it while we are at home station, it's only for use TDY, (temporary duty). The Air Force still kicks people out for abusing the Govt credit card.

But, if you pay your bill each month, you have a much smaller chance of getting in any trouble.

[NELSON111]

I know...I have both. However, the one that is being abused is the GPC...also know as the IMPAC card. It's not the biz card that I carry for my travel expenses...but the IMPAC card that people are abusing....well...people actually abuse both. The breast implants that were bought were bought on the GPC....not the biz credit cards. All the other abuse that stossel is talking about is the GPC...unless he combined both abuses. Matter of fact...when I had my GPC refresher course earlier in the year...the breast implants fraud was one of the things in our training..."don't go buying your waitress girl friend breast implants with your GPC."

Bank of America does both of my cards...my GPC and my travel cc. No doubt the travel card is abused as well. We had a guy a few years ago rack of $10,000 in gambling debt on his (went to Keesler AFB for school and...). The GPC/IMPAC bill comes to my office....the biz card bill comes to my house. I have to pay the biz card...just like all my other credit cards. The guy that ran up the gambling debt got discharged and the $10,000 in debt was prosocuted in civilian court. If he had done that on the GPC...it would have been militarily prosecuted.

[madfly]

bttt

[stanz]

Very interesting. I'd like to charge $12,000 and get promoted. Let me know how this turned out. Sorry, but tonight the Yankees are playing Anaheim. I can't miss it.

[madfly]

bttt

[madfly]

stossel ping

[Razz Barry]

There is so much fraud and waste at every government level, that our taxes could easily be cut in half and they would be, if enough of us complained.

I'm going to. AGAIN AND AGAIN.

[sauropod]

You hear wrong.

[Slyfox]

Please explain.

[oldironsides]

This new administration started looking into where the money was going. The huge hole and missing money in the Dept of Education is a puzzle. No audit in over 3 years?
The people stealing from taxpayers should be processed as criminals.