We already know that government is wasteful with our tax dollars, to say the least, but how about this? It’s been reported that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees have been using their government issued credit cards to pay for things like gym memberships, hotel stays and gift cards!
They’re chalking it up to lack of oversight. Oversight? This has reportedly been going on for at least a couple of years, as discovered by a “watchdog” group who sampled 80 transactions from fiscal year 2012.
A report released by the EPA’s Office of Inspector General, on March 4th, stated that a whopping 52% of those transactions did not comply with federal guidelines!
EPA employees are required to keep a log of their purchases and obtain approval from the agency before making the purchase. But apparently, neither the employees or agency
officials have been complying with these regulations.
Now the inspector general is blaming the employees (sure, blame the inmates at the asylum), as well as all approving officials for the violations. A spokesperson for the EPA said the agency is currently taking the appropriate steps to fix the problem.
But wait, this isn’t the first time there was credit card abuse reported by the
inspector general. It was reported back in 2011 as well! Wonder if they intended to take care of it back then too?
Do you think maybe they just wanted to get a few more gifts and vacations under their belts before stopping the illegal spending? Naah, the government would never do that…or would they?