Posted on 04/22/2012 12:49:44 PM PDT by Steelfish
Rep. King Wants To Know Whether 'Per Diem' Used To Pay Colombia Prostitutes April 22, 2012
A top House Republican wants to know whether Secret Service employees involved in the prostitution scandal in Colombia used their taxpayer "per diem" to pay any of the women for their services.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., posed the question along with dozens of others in a letter to Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan as part of his committee's escalating probe into the controversy. The questions covered everything from the potential security risks to internal training procedures.
On the issue of prostitute payment, King asked the director two questions -- how many agents paid the women, and how many "provided monetary remuneration to the female foreign nationals involved in the alleged incident in Colombia with the per diem provided by the U.S. government?"
It's unclear how much money the agents may have shelled out on the night in question, or whether any of that money came from the government pocketbook -- one of the women reportedly was paid $225 for the night. It's one of the many questions lawmakers have for the Obama administration as they launch their own investigations into the alleged misconduct.
"Every possible lead is being examined," King said Sunday. Asked about King's letter, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan told FoxNews.com in an e-mail: "We'll answer all inquiries from Congress."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Neither is related to Ngo Dinh Diem.
Sounds like King is looking for chump change fake receipts on dinner checks. What an idiot.
Exactly!
I got per diem for traveling with a US military sports team. On trips to Canada I took the pop-up camper and ate at McDonalds instead of staying at Holiday Inn and eating at Outback.
Took the savings and bought my wife a Eurail Pass to follow me and the team around to the various European national championships.
Back then Canada was $35/day, Europe between $51 and $53.
King is a grandstanding idiot, with a laser-like focus on irrelevant details.
“Could it be that both sides of the aisle are conspiring to bury this scandal ASAP....”
.
Are you still in doubt that the RATs and the GOP are in cahoots with each other? Not just on this subject, but on many more?
Bring up the subject of term limits and see how fast they will gang up together to defeat it.
IMHO, I think Mr. King is overstepping his bounds since that money is considered personal money.
When I worked for a DoD company, we got a per-diem. Hotel was separate expense. So what we usually did was stay at a hotel with a free breakfast and then eat cheaply or even better, do a very late, late lunch. At the end of the trip, it was some nice extra money to pocket and was tax free.
On one trip, we had some executive types with us and they tried to force us to do a common check for the meals and indirectly expected us non-exec types to foot the bill for their fancy meal. They weren’t happy when a few of us folks pushed back.
I worked for a different company in the early 1990’s in Indianapolis and for quite a few months, I had to to frequent trips to and from Chicago and I drove a beat up truck and took it on the trips. The executive VP of finance caught wind what a few of us were spending our mileage checks on and she pretty well required us to fly afterward. Even a trip to Cincinnati, we had to fly. IN that company we were not given a per-diem. One guy used the money to fix up his vehicle.
Yo Pete, it’s $20.00. Just like downtown.
On page to of the on-line Per Diem drop down is Whore Fee.
You may have gotten an Advance. But per-dime covers Expenses, so it is paid after the Spenser’s were incurred.
Would you have had to repay the money if the trip was cut short had not occurred at all?
Up to the applicable Federal per diem rate. There are quite a few rules, including being paid under and “accountable plan”, etc.
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p463/ch06.html#en_US_2011_publink100034177
Some employers and employees may be way off the mark on compliance but not realize it or really care unless they’re audited.
Yes.
I recall that there were other expenses beyond per diem (lodging and meals); those I had to keep closer accounting, such as taxis. I filed those when I got back for good.
I actually once received another check when I filed taxis expenses that were less than the minimum allowed. I recall that the check was for something like sixteen dollars. I must have received advances for those too. I am surprised that I cannot remember the details.. it just didn't matter that much back then. I didn't try to screw the government and I don't think that they screwed me.
I don't recall getting taxi expenses for TDY here it was overseas only. But TDY here I just didn't worry about it beyond the basic lodgings and meals.
If this happened under a Republican administration, it would be a “gate” scandal and part of the Republican “war on women,” “culture of corruption,” etc.
So what we usually did was stay at a hotel with a free breakfast
If you get a breakfast at a hotel on travel than you are supposed to tell your Travel person so they can deduct breakfast from your per diem. I am a travel person and always call the hotel to see if they offer breakfast. If they do then I deduct breakfast from the per diem amount. Now that you know PLEASE either pick a hotel WITHOUT breakfast or tell your travel person to deduct the money for breakfast or you are committing fraud and FREEPERS don’t do that.
At the Fifth Summit all the participant nations signed the following agreement. in the declearation of agreement:
http://fifthsummitoftheamericas.org/downloads/Declaration_of_Port_of_Spain_English.pdf
18. We reiterate our commitment to protect all people, particularly women, children and adolescents, from all
forms of trafficking in persons and sexual and economic exploitation, and to provide protection and attention
to the victims. We call on Ministers responsible for education, labour, social development, security and justice
to adopt coordinated national strategies to prevent and eradicate the worst forms of child labour by 2020 at
the latest, in accordance with the Plan of Action of the Fourth Summit in Mar del Plata, Argentina, and in
accordance with national legislation, and to develop innovative strategies to bring children and adolescents
who are victims back into healthy learning environments. We also reiterate our commitment to eliminate
forced labour before 2010.
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