I didn't know that the E in EPA stood for Entitlement - Granite Grok

I didn’t know that the E in EPA stood for Entitlement

“The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small,but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.” – President Obama, Inauguration (2009)

EPA BustedYeah, this is still Obama’s EPA with Pruitt installed just this past week. In that they can do what they want with our tax money, as, well, because they are the EPA. Actually, it seems to be Fed wide which is why Trump is not liked (yeah, I know, way understatement) with his promise to take down the Administrative or Deep State.  Especially so with the EPA, given how hard they lobbied Congress NOT to allow Pruitt to become the EPA Administrator and with stories about how they are going to do anything they can to stymie the new Administration’s policies to rein them in.

And with this, these EPA employees have just handed Trump and Pruitt their own hang-nooses (emphasis mine, reformatted):

EPA Employees Used Gov’t Purchase Card to Spend $14,985 on Fitness Memberships
Purchases did not comply with any of the internal controls that were tested

Environmental Protection Agency employees used their government purchase cards to spend $14,985 on fitness memberships, according to an audit by the inspector general of the agency. With the goal of assessing the risk of illegal, improper, and erroneous purchases made on the EPA’s purchase card, the auditors evaluated 18 transactions totaling $48,345 and found that none of them complied with any of the internal controls that were tested.

Some of these controls require that officials give approval, that records be properly placed in the vendor’s banking system, and that transactions be reviewed by the card holder within 10 days of posting. The auditors found that 2 of the 18 transactions, totaling $14,985, were for fitness memberships. Three other transactions were made to vendors who were considered high risk, which requires further documentation for review. Additionally, auditors found that the agency should have policies regarding how many purchase cards are issued and what are the credit limits for cardholders.

Auditors also noted that this is not the first time the agency did not have adequate oversight of the purchase-card program. In March of 2014, the inspector general released a report noting that of the $152,602 in transactions that they evaluated, $79,254 went to purchases that were prohibited, improper, or erroneous. After the most recent findings, the inspector general said that the risk for the purchase-card program “is high enough to warrant an audit.”

I guess that our Federal employees feel, like a lot of local politicians, that Federal money is “free money” – except that these EPA employees believe that free money is free for them without constraint – seems like an ongoing issue.

The overriding questions are:

  • Why don’t we know the offenders names and positions?
  • Why don’t we know their managers’ names and positions?
  • Why don’t we know what penalties were / will be?

The EPA did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

(H/T: Free Beacon)

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