$6 BILLION

[Tommycat]

That's how much we have had to pay for government issued credit cards to federal employees. I was reading a report from the GAO and I read about it. Actually we've paid more than that, but this is just the stuff the GAO has found that have been paid for that is improper spending. I'm thinking that we should start there for our budget cuts. SIX BILLION DOLLARS! Roughly 41% of 14 billion is spent without meeting proper guidelines. Talk about government waste. I want to know why they need to spend 14 billion on credit cards. I mean the US army LOST a server cluster.

Anyone else upset about how they can buy cars, first class hotels, trips, and even meals at Ruth's Chris Steak house and WE have to foot the bill? I mean I want my government issued iPod.

To make matters worse, if you look at the Improper payments section of the base report it shows that Improper Payments
Although showing progress under OMB's continuing leadership, agencies’ fiscal year
2007 reporting under the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (IPIA)36 does not
reflect the full scope of improper payments. For fiscal year 2007, federal agencies’
estimates of improper payments, based on available information, totaled about $55
billion.37 The increase from the prior year estimate of $41 billion38 was primarily
attributable to a component of the Medicaid program reporting improper payments for the
first time totaling about $13 billion for fiscal year 2007, which we view as a positive step
to improve transparency over the full magnitude of improper payments.
I want my share :D

[tk102]

This is probably due to the red tape in place to acquisition items through other means. Credit cards are a fast way to buy the items you need. I know it happens all the time in manufacturing when you have to keep equipment running. I wonder why/how this falls under the term "Improper Spending".

[Totenkopf]

From a purely bureaucratic pov, if the system is set up to let them use cc to make purchases, you probably have a point. However, I suspect the the improper payments most likely refer to abuses of the cc like all the expensive hotel and resturant bills. If you compound that by the likelihood that the bills aren't paid off the next month, but carried over (like w/ most people), then that would certainly put departments over their budgets (hence deeper in our pockets and deficit spending). Wonder what the APR is on all those purchases not immediately paid off the following month...

@tk--recall reading in Marcinko's Rogue Warrior where they would often purchase supplies (though with their own $$) b/c the chain of command wouldn't adapt its spending and acqusition priorities to meet the needs of the SEAL units (wrong types of rebreathers, weapons, etc...). Sometimes you just gotta improvise.