Management

GSA Scandal in Perspective: Employee abuse of credit cards strikes new low

A 2008 Government Accountability Office report found “fraudulent, improper and abusive” credit card purchases across a number of federal agencies. I...

Federal News Network Staff

April 18, 2012 5:35 pm

< a min read

A 2008 Government Accountability Office report found “fraudulent, improper and abusive” credit card purchases across a number of federal agencies. In one instance, an Agriculture Department employee used convenience checks tied to a government account to embezzle $642,000 in public funds over a period of six years. The money was used to gamble, to purchase a car and to make mortgage payments. The employee was sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay back the money.

In a previous 2006 GAO report, the watchdog reported 10,000 credit cards in use at the Homeland Security Department, and 45 percent of employees purchases were not properly authorized. That report identified $300,000 spent on laptops that since went missing and more than $200,000 spent on unauthorized purchases of boats.

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