The $13,500 Dinner

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Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Among the incidents highlighted in a new GAO report on the use of federal "purchase cards":

· The Postal Service spent $13,500 on food and liquor for employees and corporate clients at a 2006 dinner at an Orlando steakhouse.

· Four Defense Department cardholders charged more than $77,000 at Brooks Brothers and other high-end clothiers for tailor-made suits and other items, including $7,000 in purchases the week before Christmas.

· A NASA employee bought two $400 iPods for the personal use of a supervisor, whose name was engraved on both.

· At the Agriculture Department, a cardholder spent $80,000 on a Toyota Land Cruiser and Toyota Sienna to be shipped overseas and used by the agency, largely to take advantage of a " large chunk of money that needed to be used before the end of the fiscal year."