Senate Governmental Affairs Committee chair Senator Susan
Collins, R-Maine, and Senator Russ Feingold, D-Wis., have
introduced the Purchase Card Waste Elimination Act of 2004,
a bill to crack down on inefficient and wasteful spending
in the federal purchase card program, a committee statement
said.
“We must assure taxpayers that the federal government, which
shops with taxpayer dollars, is doing the same thing working
families do — paying attention to prices,” said Senator
Collins. “Our legislation requires the Office of Management
and Budget to direct agencies to better train cardholders
and to more effectively scrutinize their purchases. It also
instructs the federal government to increase its efforts to
secure discounts from vendors and to provide agencies with
the tools needed to control wasteful spending.”
The bill coincides with a General Accounting Office report
citing potential annual savings of up to $300 million
through better management of the purchase card program,
and stating that cardholders often lack the information and
training needed to obtain the discounted prices negotiated
by the federal government. Card purchases exceed $16 billion
per year, the report said.
The statement said that by analyzing purchase card data
some agencies have been able to identify fraud, as was the
case with the Department of Defense when it found that a
Navy cardholder used a government purchase card to pick up
two cars, “surgical enhancements,” and a motorcycle.
