[Green-Activist] {Disarmed} Fw: Gov Waste

[frank]

VRI Open Discussion forum
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Robert Alan Connor. 
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:; 
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 4:30 PM
Subject: Fw: FROM BOB.



     

No Doubt you will find this very hard to believe,..... but it is true.                                                             
      TAXPAYERS COVER THE GOVERNMENTS CREDIT BILL 
      AUSTRALIAN TAXPAYERS have paid more than $35,000 in interest on government credit cards because government departments can't pay their bills on time. Four of seven government departments that responded to questions about credit card use revealed they paid interest on the credit cards issued to public servants. 

      The Australian Electoral Commission was the worst, accruing a $23,876 interest bill over the past six years even though it is run by Finance Minister Nick Minchin. 

      Austrade had the next biggest interest bill – $10,952 – as a result of cash withdrawal transactions. 

      Labor frontbencher Kelvin Thompson last year asked departments to answer questions about the 80,436 credit cards issued to public servants every year. 

      The responses revealed thousands of cards were lost or stolen and hundreds of cases of fraud. "There are millions of families which could manage their credit cards better than the Howard Government," he said. 

      His survey found 2669 of the credit cards issued to public servants were lost or stolen. Some government employees used the cards fraudulently at a total cost of more than $667,000. 

      The Defence Department had the highest fraud bill – $635,265. Agriculture and Fisheries reported $21,991 worth of fraud. 

      The Export Finance Corporation, which provides risk management services, has no credit limit on the cards it issues to its employees. 

      Mr Thomson said the corporation had lost one in four cards issued to employees. "For an agency whose mission statement includes providing risk management services and advice, this is not good enough," he said. 

      AusAid, the Australian Reward Investment Alliance, Commonwealth Grants Commission, Commonwealth Super and Future Fund Management had the best credit card records – none had lost any cards, paid interest or dealt with any fraud. 

      Defence, which issued 65,989 credit cards, had one of the worst records – more than 2300 cards were lost or stolen, it had to deal with 196 cases of credit card fraud which cost taxpayers $635,265, but it had paid no interest. 
     
        




  

     




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