Is Pentagon's Credit Card Spending Defenseless?

Oct. 4 -- The Enron, Worldcom, Tyco and other big business accounting scandals have cost investors billions, so can you imagine a company that can't account for not billions — but for more than a trillion — dollars?

The company in this case was not actually a company; it was your government. So the money being spent was your tax dollars.

The accounting is so lax, defense department employees used your tax dollars — maybe millions of the more than a trillion that the department can't account for — to buy things like engagement rings, clothing, groceries, even Elvis photos from Graceland, according to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

Other fraudulent purchases included computers, digital cameras, women's lingerie and jewelry and escort services in New Jersey, according to Gregory Kutz, the director of financial management and assurance at the General Accounting Office.

These spending sprees happened because the Defense Department's policy of giving out credit cards to … almost anybody.

The department's idea was to make buying supplies more efficient. However, one credit application that the government uses, allows even people with bad credit ratings to get credit cards. An employee with a horrendous credit record can just check "Box B" on the form, and Bank of America is "not authorized" to check their credit rating. The employee can still get a government credit card.

From Louis Vuitton to Breast Implants

Don't you wish your employer would let you do that? Then you could buy things like Louis Vuitton bags, Lego robots, $300 headsets, and rooms at Bally's casino. One Pentagon employee used his card to buy his girlfriend breast implants. He at least paid the money back, but employees who bought laptops, Palm Pilots and digital cameras didn't. The Navy can't even figure out where many of those items went.

"Over 99.99 — well, 99.98 — percent of our purchases are for legitimate government use," said Captain Ernest L. Valdes, who defended the Navy's record at a congressional hearing.