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Not only did Defense Department employees improperly use their work credit cards, but their supervisors failed to take appropriate action after discovering the malfeasance, a report by the Pentagon's inspector general found. The investigation was a follow-up audit of a previous report, which discovered that the military racked up 5,000 charges at casinos and strip clubs totaling more than $1 million over the course of a year.
"DoD management did not take appropriate action when notified that cardholders potentially misused their travel card at casinos and adult entertainment establishments," the 90-page report said. "Specifically, DoD management and travel card officials did not perform adequate reviews for the cardholders reviewed and did not take action to eliminate additional misuse." Agency program coordinators (APCs), meanwhile, "did not always report misuse to DoD management for action."
The inspector general "nonstatistically" selected 30 Pentagon cardholders for the audit because they had the "highest dollar amount of high-risk transactions" from the previous investigation. That included seven cardholders who were used as examples in the earlier audit, four who used their travel cards at strip clubs to charge expenses of $1,000 or more, and 19 who used their cards in casinos at ATMs or for "quasi-cash transactions."
Comment: These cardholders have essentially stolen from the government and the taxpayers, and none of them are going to see the inside of a jail cell. Which is infuriating, but we don't want to forget the bigger picture that these are just the low level swindlers and this release is a limited hangout. In the grand scheme of things, a million dollars is nothing, and those at the top are far more depraved.