Your Taxes at Work?
Check out this article from CNN.
Apparently, the government is not good with money. That in and of itself is not big news. The really disturbing part is that in the end it is the individual employees who are taking advantage of the system and wasting all of our tax dollars. The people using these purchase cards include civilian employees along side military personnel. These are normal people. They may be your next door neighbor or someone you see at your kid’s soccer games.
Lets read this again.
Nearly half of transactions made in the 2006 fiscal year with government credit or debit cards — referred to as “purchase cards” — were improper, the study found, and the audit condemned the government-wide “rate of failure” as “unacceptably high.”
Almost half of all transactions? What a disgrace.
Of those willing to have knowingly defrauded their employer (the government and thus all tax paying US citizens) I wonder what is going on in their own finances. Do you think that they are as studious with their own bank accounts as the government is with theirs? If so, then perhaps there is a bit of poetic justice already in the works.
This brings about a good point. There is no auditing agency out there that will be scrutinizing your bank and credit card statements each year. If you took a peek at your activity last year would you be surprised with what you would see? Do you have some lurking improper expenses of your own?
We are all masters of our own spending habits. We make choices each day that affect our future financial selves. We should take a lesson from our wayward government. Don’t end up wondering what where your money went at the end of every month.
It happens to me to a certain extent each month. I know I can do better.