Sen. Chuck Grassley has a long history of exposing the abuse of government charge cards and working to fix the abuses. In 2012, a bill he drafted called the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act became law. The law required federal agencies to beef up oversight of purchases on government-issued credit cards. Last year, an audit found that a number of Pentagon employees used their government charge cards at casinos and strip clubs. The Defense Department inspector general’s office said the audit it performed that caught the travel card abuse was because of Grassley’s law. Grassley is the co-sponsor with Sen. Tom Carper of legislation that would require the General Services Administration to use its database of purchases to look for patterns of misuse and opportunities to save money by leveraging the government’s purchasing power. The Senate passed the bill. Today, the Government Accountability Office released a report Grassley co-requested that finds that several agencies could do a better job of using purchase cards to save taxpayer money. Grassley made the following comment on the report.
“It makes sense that the federal government as a major purchaser of goods and services should take advantage of its purchasing power to save taxpayer money whenever possible. In fiscal year 2015, the government spent about $19 billion using purchase cards, so the potential for cost savings is notable. The agencies that were part of the GAO review should implement all recommendations as soon as possible.”
The report is available here.
