Defense task force aims to clean up charge card abuse

Pentagon officials have formed a task force to find ways to cut the pervasive abuse of government credit cards at the Defense Department.

Lawmakers recently chastised the Defense Department after General Accounting Office investigations uncovered widespread abuse of government travel and purchase cards among military and civilian personnel. One GAO audit found that various Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) and Navy Public Works Center employees used government credit cards to buy, among other things, $500 worth of Mary Kay cosmetics, $700 in compact discs and a $400 designer briefcase.

At a press conference Wednesday, Defense Comptroller Dov Zakheim said the week-old task force's mission is to make recommendations within 60 days to reduce abuse of the department's credit cards.

"Money lost this way is the kind of money that can be spent on bombs, bullets and whatever else is needed," Zakheim said. "We are not going to let the grass grow under our feet on this one."

The 1998 Travel and Transportation Reform Act requires federal employees to use government charge cards, instead of personal credit cards, for travel expenses. Purchase cards were adopted across government to circumvent the procurement process for relatively small, routine purchases. Purchases card transactions are supposed to be capped at $2,500. In fiscal 2001, Defense Department employees spent $6.1 billion with purchase cards and another $3.4 billion with travel cards.

In May 2001, Defense Finance and Accounting Service Director Jerry Hinton told House legislators that the Pentagon had crafted a plan to solve the problem. The new plan included increased attention from agency management, deactivating infrequently used cards, garnishing salaries of account holders whose accounts were more than 120 days past due, establishing direct payment systems to banks, reducing credit limits on individual cards and increasing late and returned check fees. But at a March 13 hearing, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said that 46,572 Defense personnel had defaulted on more than $62 million in "official" travel expenses as of November 2001.

"These credit cards are being taken on a shopping spree and the cardholders seem to be immune from punishment," Grassley said at the hearing.

Some of the recommendations being studied by the new group are to make supervisors, who sign off on purchases, pay for illegal purchases out of their own pockets and to make credit card abuse a specific offense under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, a move that would strengthen the Pentagon's ability to punish and prosecute employees, according to Zakheim. Another suggestion is to suspend security clearances for people who misuse the cards.

Following the announcement Grassley said he hoped the reforms worked. "It's refreshing to have a Defense secretary who's trying to solve a problem rather than make excuses for a problem," the Senator said.

Currently more than 90 Defense employees are under investigation for misuse and abuse of government credit cards.