10 years and still no action

By The Gazette Editorial Board

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Compared to the size of our enormous national debt and current budget deficit, misuse of government charge cards by federal employees is small potatoes. A few million dollars here, a few million there, don't add up anywhere close to the trillions of debt that convinced the Standard & Poor fiscal rating agency to give the United States a “negative” ratings outlook for the first time ever on Monday.

Nonetheless, the credit card abuse nags us. It's the type of ongoing behavior that chips away at the public's trust in government. Why can't something on this scale be fixed promptly?

Despite a decade of spotlight work by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office and others, the abuse persists.

Purchase cards used by federal employees are supposed to be for small-scale items related to official business, such as office supplies and travel expenses. But for years, the GAO has documented many fradulent, questionable and excessively expensive purchases. Among the GAO's more recent investigative findings: Cards were used to pay for Internet dating services, erotica products, a $13,000 dinner, “Girls Gone Wild” videos, $600 at a Texas gentlemen's club, $400 at a massage parlor, $3,700 of jewelry and season tickets to New Orleans Saints games. A GAO investigator tracking one time period found “nearly 41 percent of all federal purchase card transactions from July 1, 2005, through June 30, 2006, failed basic control checks.”

Senate File 300, the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act, was approved last week by the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. It's co-sponsored by Grassley, Sen. Joe Lieberman, (ID-Conn.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

However, we wonder if there's enough collective political will in Congress to approve this legislation. The same proposal was passed by the full Senate in 2009, but the House never took action.

The prevention act would establish safeguards and internal controls for the charge card program and stiff penalties for violations. The act's provisions (full list at http://grassley.senate.gov/news/Article.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1502=30977) include things you'd assume would already be standard practice, such as maintaining records of each cardholder's transactions and spending limits, periodic reviews to determine if the cardholders really do need a card, and not allowing employees to approve their own purchases, among others.

Come on, Congress. At least take care of the smaller stuff as the difficult deficit debate continues.

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