Archives
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
Categories
- Congress
- Defense
- General News
- Health
- Health IT
- Homeland Security
- IBM suspension
- Industry
- Info Security
- Intelligence
- International
- IT management
- Law
- OMB
- Oversight
- Policy
- Politics
- Privacy
- Procurement
- Program Management
- Project management
- Risk management
- Security
- Spending
- State and Local
- Technology
- Telecommunications
- Tip Thursday
- Virtual World
- Web
- White House
- Wireless
- Workplace
What's happening in the federal IT community
By Friday, April 11, 2008 | 5:59 PM
I want to draw your attention to my colleague's, Tom Shoop's, FedBlog item "Zero Tolerance for Charge Card Abuse." The item refers to a report on the abuse of government purchase cards. In just a couple of hours, the item received, at last count, more than a dozen comments. "Why do we keep hearing these excesses?" asks James Boyd. "The cards have controls that can be programmed into them." And more.
Join the discussion here, or the one already talking place on FedBlog.
Comments
I retired after 28 years with the Federal Government. I had one of the first purchase cards ever issued to an employee in the original Department of Commerce pilot program. Many times purchases are made and the rules are changed in mid-stride. Making it an improper purchase or what was done legally was change over night. I never had any problem with the card or improper purchases that I could not ultimately explain. I do think that often times rules placed on purchasers are illogical and arbitrarily set up by people in Administrative Offices in respond to and issue elsewhere in government.The rules are often complicated by perception and politics. I was an authorized firearms user in an agency that uses firearms during the course of the job but, we were not allowed to buy even one box of ammo or pellets for an air gun when in the field using our equipment for work duties. So if you forgot the ammo or ran out you either quit work and returned to you office or supply location no matter how far it was from your field operation. Yet a purchasing agent could with the same card. I was a trained and authorized user and they were not. Using their system to buy large quantities of ammo only left room for temptation. Large quantities of anything laying around could occasionally temp the weak and contribute to theft. I recently read an article on planners and Franklin Covey listed as an improper purchase for Government use. A number of years back I was actually required to take the Franklin Covey course -7 Habits of Highly Successful People by my then supervisor. I spent a substantial amount from my field budget to accomplish this course to learn how to keep plans and use their planner. Times changed and I was told we were not allowed to use their planners as it was an improper Government card purchase. I no longer used the planner and never really did use it. Numerous people within my Agency spent money on this course including my superiors a few years before I retired. It was obviously a big waste of funds but, not an illegal purchase at that time.
I could cite many other examples of arbitrary and useless expenses. I think it improper and abusive of contracting officers to discriminate against a company that may provide legitimate and valid products and services to the Government because they also sell products employees are not authorized to purchase. I believe vendors are also responsible for not supplying improper items if they are not allowed in their contracts.