Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has criticized the Justice Department for what a report issued by his staff calls the mismanagement of more than $10 billion by "taking excessive junkets to conferences, skipping hundreds weeks of work without leave, misplacing and losing hundreds of laptops and dangerous weapons," as well as "hobnobbing with Hollywood producers" and managing grants poorly.
Coburn claims the department suffers from an accountability problem. The report lists about $500 million in "unneeded and duplicative" projects and argues for budget cuts throughout the federal government, arguing Congress could trim $300 billion from agency budgets without most Americans noticing.
Complaints include the following:
Several DOJ agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service, the DEA, and the FBI, have public affairs staff that act as liaisons to Hollywood movie producers;
DoJ spent at least $312 million over seven years on conference attendance and sponsorship, and the funds it spent on conferences in 2006 could have funded 400 additional Justice lawyers;
Since 2005, the number of hours that DoJ employees have been charged with being AWOL rose from more than 93,000 hours per year, to more than 125,000 hours in 2007, representing an increase of 34 percent in two years.
