{"id":2741,"date":"2011-03-05T17:01:59","date_gmt":"2011-03-05T17:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=2741"},"modified":"2011-03-05T17:01:59","modified_gmt":"2011-03-05T17:01:59","slug":"a_government_accountability_of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=2741","title":{"rendered":"A Government Accountability Office Report I Missed When It Came Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On January 18th of this year, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnsnews.com\/news\/article\/gao-lists-erotica-items-girls-gone-wild\">CNS News<\/a>&nbsp;reported an a Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit that stated:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p><em>&#8220;nearly 41 percent of all federal purchase card transactions from July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006, failed basic control checks&#8221; and the presentation includes case studies where a &#8220;U.S. Postal Service employee spent $1,100 on Internet dating services over a 15-month period&#8221; and &#8220;$13,000 &#8211; Dinner and alcohol for 81 at Ruth&#8217;s Chris&#8221;.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">If you follow the above link to the article, there is a link in the article to the powerpoint presentation about the fraud in government credit card use.&nbsp; As we debate cutting government spending, it is interesting to note that the Federal Purchase Card Program went from less than $1 billion in 1994 to more than $19 billion in 2009.&nbsp; Since there is a strong possibility that 41 percent of that money was not legitimately spent, that might be a really good place to start cutting the federal budget.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The article at CNS News lists a few of the credit card abuses (totaling about $5,350):<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" jquery1299362490079=\"7\">&#8211;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Erotica Products (&#8216;Condoms to Go&#8217;, &#8216;Pleasure Zone&#8217;)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&#8211;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Girls Gone Wild videos (&#8216;GGW Videos&#8217;)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&#8211;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 1- week Caribbean vacation (&#8216;Vacation Express&#8217;)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&#8211;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Five season football tickets (&#8216;New Orleans Saints&#8217;)&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I guess Saints tickets are cheap.&nbsp;I live in New England&#8211;Patriots tickets are not!<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The article further lists some of the expenditures:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p jquery1299362490079=\"9\"><em>&#8220;The reports also reveal <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gao.gov\/new.items\/d06655.pdf\"><em>additional federal debit card use<\/em><\/a><em> for $600 at a Texas gentlemen&#8217;s club, $3,700 worth of purchases at a jewelry store, $400 at a massage parlor and $450 dollars for an arm tattoo.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" jquery1299362490079=\"9\">This might be a really good place to begin cutting the federal budget&#8211;better control of the debit cards!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On January 18th of this year, CNS News&nbsp;reported an a Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit that stated: &#8220;nearly 41 percent of all federal purchase card transactions from July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006, failed basic control checks&#8221; and the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=2741\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}