Americans
For Tax Reform By Justin Sykes
A
report released by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Inspector General has
found that EPA employees have improperly used federal charge cards to purchase
everything from gym memberships to gift cards. The report indicated
that over 90 percent of the sampled transactions were for prohibited, improper,
or erroneous purchases, all paid for by American taxpayers. Ironically, Senate
Democrats Monday night carried on an all-night filibuster in the hopes of
generating even more power and funding for the EPA.
In
order to compile the report, the Office of the Inspector General obtained a
spreadsheet of 67,000 EPA transactions from Fiscal Year (FY) 2012, and randomly
selected 69 transactions. They additionally selected 11 transactions that
seemed inappropriate because of the name of the merchant involved. For
instance, some transactions were with merchants listed as dance halls, child
care organizations, music venues and theatres. Of the 80 transactions sampled,
75 were for prohibited, improper, or erroneous purchases. The 80 transactions
sampled totaled $152,602 and $79,254 (52%) of which were for prohibited,
improper, or erroneous purchases.
The
report outlined nine specific internal control oversight issues, ranging from
the approval of prohibited transactions by EPA officials to the outright
failure to maintain transaction records. Of the primary internal control
oversight issues, four were particularly outrageous, and the report found that
of the transactions sampled:
1.35% of cardholders did not verify the receipt of purchases;
2.30% of cardholders did not obtain required approval prior
for purchases;
3.25% of cardholders did not obtain funding prior to
purchases; and
4.18% of approving officials never reviewed purchase logs.
