Mis-Spending Government's Money

Once again, we see how weak and unethical leadership in the White House has filtered down and infected all levels and departments of the federal government. After finding credit card abuse in the Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs Departments, the Government Accountability Office (GAO-formerly the General Accounting Office) decided to do a review of all federal agencies. What they found was not good.

It seems that credit card abuse is rampant in all government agencies. After reviewing over a dozen departments for 2005 and 2006, the GAO found that 41% of $14 billion in credit card purchases did not follow proper government procedures. They were either not properly authorized or had not been signed off on by a third party as required by procedures.

About 48% of purchases over $2500 were unauthorized or improperly received. More than $1.8 million of laptops, iPods and digital cameras could not be found or accounted for. Instances of double-billing by employees were also found.

The GAO investigators said the government-wide breakdown in enforcing established controls and procedures was "unacceptably high". They found expenditures for internet dating services, tailor-made clothing, wine and brand-name liquor, $160 steak and crab dinners, and women's lingerie. One employee even wrote over $642,000 in credit card convience checks to a live-in boyfriend.

The GAO report said the General Services Administration and the Office of Management and Budget need to tighten their procedures and keep better track of purchases. That may be true, but you can't lay all of this at the feet of these two agencies.

Leadership starts at the top, and our top leadership has been a miserable failure. If Bush held his agency heads accountable, and they held their middle management accountable, and they held department heads accountable, and they held supervisors accountable, and they held employees accountable, then we wouldn't have this problem.

In a government agency, accountability must start at the top and filter down. If the top leadership is not competent, and does not demand competence in others, then it doesn't take long for a bureaucracy to run off the tracks.

The employees who mis-spent all this money must be held responsible, but they could not have done it without the incompetence of their leadership -- all the way up to the top.