Government Theft, feed em' to the gators!

If I had my way I'd feed em' to the alligators. A two hour trial and off to the Gator Pond!
The BIG question is what price will they pay. Is this not theft of the United States Treasury? Folks, pay attention to this story because it is only the tip of the iceberg. There should be a special prison for these creatures, can't think of another word I can write here to describe these people. Low down dirty skunk is way to mild. Read on and git yourself worked up.
Vote in our poll to feed em' to the Gators-left column.

OrlandoSentinel.com

Filet, lingerie, Web dates -- with your tax dollars

Hope Yen

The Associated Press

April 9, 2008

WASHINGTON


Federal employees charged millions of dollars for Internet dating, tailor-made suits, lingerie, lavish dinners and other questionable expenses to their government credit cards during a 15-month period, congressional auditors say.

One of the dinners in question took place at an Orlando-area Ruth's Chris Steak House for 81 people at a cost of $160 each for steaks and crab.

The dinner bill also included more than 200 appetizers and more than $3,000 worth of wine and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnnie Walker Gold Label.

The report by the Government Accountability Office, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, examined spending controls in 2005-06 across more than a dozen departments after reports of credit-card abuse at Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.


Gambling debt, fine suits

Some of the other expenditures cited in the report:

*An Agriculture Department employee fraudulently wrote 180 convenience checks for more than $642,000 to a live-in boyfriend during a six-year period. The money was used for gambling, car and mortgage payments, dinners and retail purchases that went unnoticed until USDA's inspector general received a tip from a whistle-blower. The employee, who pleaded guilty to embezzlement and tax-fraud charges, was sentenced last year to 21 months in prison and ordered to repay the money.

*U.S. Postal Service workers separately billed more than $14,000 to government credit cards for Internet dating services, as well as the dinner at an Orlando-area Ruth's Chris Steak House.

In the Internet dating case, a postmaster charged $1,100 during 15 months for two online services, including the Ashley Madison Agency. The expenses went unnoticed for more than a year even though he was under internal investigation for viewing pornography on a government computer. The postmaster was eventually told to repay the Internet charges but faced no disciplinary action.

*At the Pentagon, four employees purchased $77,700 in clothing and accessories at high-end clothing and sporting-goods stores. The spending included more than $45,000 at Brooks Brothers and similar stores for tailor-made suits -- $7,000 of which were purchased a week before Christmas. The credit-card holders said the items were for service members working at U.S. embassies with civilian attire.

*Justice Department and FBI employees charged $11,000 at a Ritz Carlton hotel for coffee and "light" refreshments for 50 to 70 attendees for four days -- 70 percent of the total conference cost. It was not clear what action, if any, that Justice took in light of the conference expenses, which GAO deemed excessive.

*At the State Department, one credit-card holder bought $360 worth of women's lingerie at Seduccion Boutique for use during jungle training by trainees of a drug-enforcement program in Ecuador. One State Department official later agreed that the charge was questionable.


No OKs; bad paperwork

The review of card spending found that nearly 41 percent of about $14 billion in credit-card purchases, whether legitimate or questionable, did not follow procedure -- either because they were not properly authorized or they had not been signed for by an independent third party as called for in federal rules to deter fraud.

For purchases more than $2,500, 48 percent were unauthorized or improperly received.

Out of a sample of purchases totaling $2.7 million, the government could not account for hundreds of laptops, iPods and digital cameras worth more than $1.8 million. In one case, the U.S. Army could not say what happened to computer items making up 16 server configurations, each of which cost about $100,000.

Agencies often could not provide the required paperwork to justify questionable purchases. Investigators also found that federal employees sometimes double-billed or improperly expensed charges for many months without question from supervisors; the charges often were noticed only after auditors or whistle-blowers raised questions.


Scrutiny keeps expanding

The GAO study comes amid increasing scrutiny of purchase cards, which are used by 300,000 federal employees and are directly payable by the U.S. government.

The Associated Press reported Sunday that VA employees last year racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in government credit-card bills at casino and luxury hotels, movie theaters and high-end retailers such as Sharper Image. Government auditors have been investigating these and similar charges, citing past spending abuses.

"Too many government employees have viewed purchase cards as their personal line of credit," said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security subcommittee on investigations, which requested the GAO report.

"When money that was intended to pay for critical infrastructure, education and homeland security is instead being spent on iPods, lingerie and socializing, we must immediately remedy the problem."

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the investigations subcommittee, agreed.

"Although internal controls over government credit cards have improved, we still have a long way to go to stop the fraudulent use of these cards," he said.

Copyright © 2008, Orlando Sentinel