A NASA employee charged $270 worth of t-shirts and hats from an agency gift shop to his government credit card, categorizing the purchase as “safety equipment.”
That is one of the abuses that The Houston Chronicle discovered while reviewing 451,000 charges made by NASA employees between 2004 and 2007. “NASA employees have used government credit cards to ring up iPods, video games and even clothes from the agency’s own gift shop, while at other times using the cards in ways that sidestep competitive bidding rules, federal documents and a Chronicle review of agency records show.”
The Chronicle reports that agency employees just didn’t buy iPods; these were custom engraved ones. Employees evaded $3,000 per transaction limitations by having vendors swipe their cards multiple times for the same items. Some purchases were large enough that they might have violated federal competitive bidding rules. One Kennedy Space Center employee, Elizabeth Ann Osborne, pleaded guilty to embezzling $157,000 used for electronics, jewelry and a home air conditioner.
NASA officials say they are trying to rein in such abuses, which have been found government wide. Congress is working to establish stronger safeguards and more rigorous penalties.
