AUDIT FINDS FRAUD PLAGUED OFFICE OF HOMELAND SECURITY
$5.4 Million for 9 months salaries for chief executives of a firm that received a contract before it was incorporated and has subsequently gone out of business.
$8,100 for elevator operators at the Marriott Marquis Hotel
$125,000 rental fee for six magnetometers that could have been purchased for about $5,000 apiece
$4.4 Million for no show fees for exams not taken by potential candidates
$28,000 for coffee at the Sheraton Hotel in Reston
These are just a few items listed in an audit. But here’s the kicker these are from an audit released last year.
The recent headlines just go prove that nothing is ever done when these audits are released and we can expect the same with the current audit that has shown payments for
More than 2,000 sets of dog booties, costing $68,442, that have sat unused in storage since emergency responders decided they were not suited for canines assisting in Gulf Coast recovery efforts.
• Three portable shower units for $71,170 from a contractor who investigators said overcharged the government.
• 12 Apple IPod Nanos and 42 IPod Shuffles, priced at $7,000, for Secret Service “training and data storage.” Because the Shuffles cost less than $300, the Secret Service said it was not required to track them to ensure they were used properly.
• 37 black Helly Hansen designer rain jackets, costing nearly $2,500, for use in a firing range that the Customs and Border Protection purchaser later acknowledged shuts down when it’s raining.
• A beer-brewing kit and ingredients for more than $1,000 for a Coast Guard official to brew alcohol while on duty as a social organizer for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
Now add that on top of the hundreds of millions that have been given out in improper loans after 9/11 and you just have the tip of the iceberg.
The bottom line is that this unfortunately business as usual. These abuses continue to occur. We spend millions more on audits and Congressional hearings and Senate subcommittees and the bottom line is nothing gets done.
That is the reason things like this continue to happen. This will be a headline for a few days and then will be forgotten as was the audit from last year.
One can only imagine what the audit will look like for the rebuilding of Ground Zero. Unfortunately we will never see such an audit until years from now. By that time it will be impossible to recoup any of the money lost.
We can only be assured of one thing that it will make headlines for a few days and then be forgotten
This will continue as long as the attitude that “it is easier to get forgiveness than it is to get permission” prevails.
Especially when the forgiveness does not include any penalties or restitution.
For more see our posting from 7/1/05 at
http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=16782
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