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Rich uncle
Government credit cards prove just too tempting
Date published: 4/10/2008
WHY did the General Services Credit cards do more than unlock doors--they disable consumers' spending-restraint mechanisms. Experts What's more, U.S. credit-card debt is soaring: From a tally of $60 billion in the first quarter of 2002, it has risen The fast-and-loose mentality that credit cards fuel, meshed with a sense that consequences won't come home to roost, has fostered a whole new level of temptation for federal workers. A new Government Accountability Office report reveals that nearly half of the federal "purchase card" transactions it studied were improper. That's no small potatoes: Federal workers spent nearly $20 billion last year using Uncle Sam's plastic. The idea, when GSA introduced the concept in 1998, was that issuing credit cards to workers would cut back on accounting costs and streamline making "minor" purchases. Instead, we the taxpayers have bought a $13,000 steak dinner arranged by Postal Service workers (including an assortment of fine wines and strong beverages--really going first-class!). One post-office worker used $1,100 worth of online dating services. And the citizenry fronted $360 for a State Department employee to spend at the Seduccion Boutique in Ecuador for "women's underwear/lingerie." Let our federal civil servants go back to the days of purchase orders, travel advances, and accountability. Or at least pass the Government Credit Card Abuse Prevention Act, now lingering in a Senate committee. Failure to take into account human nature by passing out credit cards willy-nilly is a $10-billion-and-counting mistake. Who can afford that? Not even Uncle Sam.
Date published: 4/10/2008
Call it what it really is!
(posted by
fireball
, Apr. 10, 2008 6:36 am)
Leave it to Uncle Sam to try to spin this whole scandal. What they call "unauthorized purchases" would be called EMBEZZLEMENT anywhere else! When I was on active duty, I had to back up EVERY purchase I made with a procurement request. All the card did was make the process go a little faster. I knew that if I messed up, it could come out of my pocket, or worse. The people in the finance office at these agencies had to be either in on it, or just plain stupid. Send a few of them to jail and see what happens.
checks and balances
(posted by
dmine45
, Apr. 10, 2008 5:17 am)
Most government places have very few people who can purchase items with the gov't credit card, and even then there are more checks and balances to make sure they don't purchase things that aren't authroized by a chain of command. But, the credit card purchase system is much better than the old way of doing things with a purchase order for small items.
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