A report by internal investigators at the Environmental Protection Agency found 'ineffective oversight' at the EPA allowed federal workers to use government credit cards to buy gift cards, gym memberships, food and thousands of dollars in other items that were not properly approved for purchase by the agency in 2012.
"Seventy-five of 80 reviewed transactions were not in compliance with EPA policies," read a report from the Inspector General of the EPA issued last Friday.
"Some of the more egregious purchases we identified were meals for an awards recognition ceremony and gym memberships for EPA employees and their families," the report stated.
The 2013 audit looked at only a small sample of the charges made with the 1,370 purchase card holders at EPA, who used the cards to make more than $29 million in purchases in Fiscal Year 2012.
Of the 67,000 transactions made with EPA purchase cards in FY 2012, investigators selected 80 purchases for review - finding 52 percent of the money involved should not have been approved for use.
"Of $152,602 in transactions we sampled, we found $79,254 of prohibited, improper and erroneous purchases were not detected," the IG concluded.
Among the findings, the review found three examples of EPA employees buying gym memberships for a total of $2,867 - but records were missing for $14,368 in spending on "fitness" items.
"Two of those purchases were for family memberships, and not just the EPA employee," the report found.
In another case, 20 American Express gift cards were purchased for $1,588 to provide "on-the-spot awards" to EPA employees, but it wasn't clear who received those awards.
"There was no third-party verification that any awardees received the gift cards," the report said, leaving open the possibility that EPA employees pocketed the gift cards on Uncle Sam's dime.
Investigators also found a lack of records to support some purchases, like "two transactions totaling $26,152," where receipts "could not be located despite instructions to maintain supporting documentation."
In other words, the EPA was not keeping very good track of what employees were buying with government credit cards.
"We found a number of transactions where cardholders, approving officials, the purchase card team and program offices were not providing oversight," the IG stated.
Of the 80 transactions with government credit cards that were reviewed at the EPA - 75 of the 80 purchases - "were not in compliance with EPA policies."
The EPA review was in part spurred by a 2012 law passed by Congress that requires stricter oversight of federal agency purchase card use.
Last year, the Obama Administration officially declared that federal workers can be fired for making improper or illegal purchases with government credit cards.
This EPA report made no mention of any penalties being assessed against EPA employees for misuse of government purchase cards.
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