WASHINGTON, DC -- Bad news for American taxpayers:
Thousands of government employees have been going on credit-card shopping sprees, buying everything from pornography and vacations to jewelry and pet supplies -- and sending you the bill.
"Who says government workers don't get any credit?" said Libertarian Party National Director Steve Dasbach. "Unfortunately, they get plenty of it -- and they're sending us their credit card bills.
"New revelations about the growing abuse of government credit cards proves there may be nothing more frightening than federal workers with the power to say, 'Charge it!' "
Last week, the General Accounting Office in Washington, DC acknowledged there had been a "significant breakdown" in monitoring the abuse of credit cards by federal employees.
The problem is especially significant, said the GAO, because federal employees are carrying more than 3.1 million government-issued charge cards -- and are using them to spend up to $19 billion a year.
The cards, designed to give federal employees more flexibility when making official purchases, have been used for a staggering array of personal expenses, according to the GAO and other government watchdog groups. Examples include:
* Pornographic materials, purchased over the Internet by credit-card wielding Education Department employees. The department's chief inspector, Lorraine Lewis, also admitted that employees had used the cards to buy personal computers.
* Tickets to a Broadway show by an employee at the Department of Energy.
* Family vacations, charged by employees of the Corporation for
National and Community Service. One worker racked up $22,442 in bills for family fun.
* Eyeglasses, jewelry, and pet supplies.
* An astonishing $500,000 in "personal" expenses by one employee in the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles.
And even when the charges are for legitimate government use,
bureaucrats appear to have a growing problem with actually paying their bills: At the Pentagon alone, 40,000 federal employees have defaulted on more than $53 million in travel charges.
If those examples aren't shocking enough, the problem may get even worse in the future: Charges on government credit cards have increased 28% since 1999 -- and are growing every year, according to the GAO.
Even more worrisome: Fifteen federal agencies now have more than one card per employee, according to the GOA, and security for the cards seems to be extremely lax. For example:
* Two agencies -- the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Securities and Exchange Commission -- each have more than twice as many credit cards as employees.
* Even former employees at the Internal Revenue Service have access to credit cards, according to the Treasury Inspector General.
* Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel hold a whopping 1.6 million
credit cards; while the Agriculture Department has 157,752 and the Transportation Department has 119,465.
Given all these problems, it's past time to take these credit cards out of the hands of financially out-of-control federal workers, said
Dasbach.
"We need to cut up these government credit cards and put an end to these plastic-fueled shopping sprees by federal spendthrifts -- before taxpayers wind up in the poorhouse," he said.
Thousands of government employees have been going on credit-card shopping sprees, buying everything from pornography and vacations to jewelry and pet supplies -- and sending you the bill.
"Who says government workers don't get any credit?" said Libertarian Party National Director Steve Dasbach. "Unfortunately, they get plenty of it -- and they're sending us their credit card bills.
"New revelations about the growing abuse of government credit cards proves there may be nothing more frightening than federal workers with the power to say, 'Charge it!' "
Last week, the General Accounting Office in Washington, DC acknowledged there had been a "significant breakdown" in monitoring the abuse of credit cards by federal employees.
The problem is especially significant, said the GAO, because federal employees are carrying more than 3.1 million government-issued charge cards -- and are using them to spend up to $19 billion a year.
The cards, designed to give federal employees more flexibility when making official purchases, have been used for a staggering array of personal expenses, according to the GAO and other government watchdog groups. Examples include:
* Pornographic materials, purchased over the Internet by credit-card wielding Education Department employees. The department's chief inspector, Lorraine Lewis, also admitted that employees had used the cards to buy personal computers.
* Tickets to a Broadway show by an employee at the Department of Energy.
* Family vacations, charged by employees of the Corporation for
National and Community Service. One worker racked up $22,442 in bills for family fun.
* Eyeglasses, jewelry, and pet supplies.
* An astonishing $500,000 in "personal" expenses by one employee in the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles.
And even when the charges are for legitimate government use,
bureaucrats appear to have a growing problem with actually paying their bills: At the Pentagon alone, 40,000 federal employees have defaulted on more than $53 million in travel charges.
If those examples aren't shocking enough, the problem may get even worse in the future: Charges on government credit cards have increased 28% since 1999 -- and are growing every year, according to the GAO.
Even more worrisome: Fifteen federal agencies now have more than one card per employee, according to the GOA, and security for the cards seems to be extremely lax. For example:
* Two agencies -- the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Securities and Exchange Commission -- each have more than twice as many credit cards as employees.
* Even former employees at the Internal Revenue Service have access to credit cards, according to the Treasury Inspector General.
* Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel hold a whopping 1.6 million
credit cards; while the Agriculture Department has 157,752 and the Transportation Department has 119,465.
Given all these problems, it's past time to take these credit cards out of the hands of financially out-of-control federal workers, said
Dasbach.
"We need to cut up these government credit cards and put an end to these plastic-fueled shopping sprees by federal spendthrifts -- before taxpayers wind up in the poorhouse," he said.
