“In the civilian world..the boss signs the expense book and gets a copy of the monthly company credit card statement.
Why doesn’t the govt do the same thing? That minimizes the credit card abuse..or makes the boss responsible.”
In the civilian world the CFO has all the finance subordinates reporting to him or her. Just watched the Cong. hearing on CSPAN. The current overall CFO of the GSA DOES NOT have the Regional CFO’s reporting to her. Give me a break!
I used to work in a government contract operation as a young woman. When I worked there were so many checks or reviews on everything you did, it was really too much red tape and levels of management for review.
After I was out of the government (it was like being sprung from prison), one of the things Republicans did was to “streamline” government and get rid of unnecessary checks and balances and all those checkers to reduce the cost of government.
In truth, I don’t think they had a clue on how to do that without letting the horses out of the barn. Government spending and contracting is complex because of all the laws and regulations that have to be followed to be on the right side of the law. When no one is looking or caring, people get tempted to be slimey and that is why some of the review layers were in place. This is especially true in govenment where no profit nor product is expected and money is way too loose. High spending is corrupting in government.
They need to have high levels of travel and credit card use and approval for employees. You have to check what you expect in government and business.