By Jason Pierce
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
August 21, 2001

(CNSNews.com) - Uncle Sam may be able to work faster and more efficiently because of federal credit cards issued to government employees, but recent investigations show that with 1,700 employees with $20,000 spending limits each, many employees are using the cards to finance their own pleasures at the expense of taxpayers.

A recent Government Accounting Office investigation into government credit card use reveals a trail of abuses by government employees, including:

- Education Department workers who used their credit cards several times to purchase pornography on-line,

- An employee in the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, who charged nearly $500,000 in personal expenses before she was caught,

- An employee of the Corporation for National and Community Service, who spent $22, 442 in personal expenses and financed his family's vacation,

- And in the Navy, a stream of questionable purchases, including $500 for Mary Kay cosmetics, $1,500 in gift certificates to Nordstrom, $10,000 in charges to Mervyn's, Macy's, Circuit City, and others for clothing, electronics and other personal items, $700 worth of CDs, and $400 for a designer Coach leather brief case.

While the cards are meant to be used only for official business, such as setting up official travel arrangements or purchasing office supplies, GAO said records show employees also used the cards for personal business, including everyday expenses like eyeglasses, jewelry and pet supplies.

And by the end of this year, government employees are expected to spend more than $19 billion on federally issued credit cards.

Federal agencies began issuing credit cards in the early 1990s to cut red tape and speed purchasing of such things such as office supplies, travel, automobile maintenance and fuel, but because of what some see as a lack of supervision and management, government employee spending sprees have become commonplace.

Originally, a supervisor would tell an employee to go down to the store with their own credit card and buy a $7 or $8 hammer, because there is no need for all that paper work, said David Williams, vice president of Policy and Communications for Citizens Against Government Waste.

Unfortunately, he said, since they have their own credit cards, they have been going down to the hardware store, and not only buying the hammer for $8, but buying paint for the house and other stuff. We need better oversight and better management.

According to GAO records, 3.1 million cards have been issued to government employees, and 15 agencies have issued more cards than they have employees.

In the Department of Defense alone, 1.8 million cards issued Pentagon employees rang up $9 billion in debt. But, GAO officials say, there is no real way of policing the expenditures from so many issued cards.

George Getz, spokesman for the Libertarian party, said the investigation not only shows why giving too many employees government credit cards is a bad idea, but also shows one of the downfalls of big government.

Giving credit cards to government employees is like giving Viagra to Bill Clinton, Getz said. This just goes to show how one government program leads to another unneeded government program, which leads to unneeded, unsupervised employees.