The Office of Management and Budget has issued guidance
in an effort to return the limit for government credit
card purchases to pre-Katrina levels from the current
$250,000 limit authorized under the second Katrina
emergency supplemental appropriations bill.
A bill was introduced on September 30 by Senators Byron
Dorgan, D-N.D., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., aimed at rolling
back the higher purchase limits to prevent them from
becoming “a tool for widespread fraud,” as the senators
warned in a statement.
While Dorgan and Wyden praised OMB’s guidance as “exactly
the kind of common-sense step we’ve called for to fight
waste and fraud with government credit cards,” they
also said they would push through with the bill in order
to affirm OMB’s rules.
OMB announced that purchasing limits higher than $2,500
for normal purchases, and $15,000 for contingency
operations, would only be authorized in exceptional
circumstances.
“To further strengthen the protections that we have put
in place to guard against fraud and abuse, we are asking
that agencies operate under pre-hurricane levels unless
they can justify to us that there are exceptional
circumstances,” said OMB Deputy Director for Management
Clay Johnson III.
