Federal Workers Taking Government For A Ride

25 April 2007 - 8:00am

The Government Accountability Office has revealed major fraud and abuse of transit subsidies for federal employees -- many of whom are selling their transit vouchers on eBay, pocketing the money, and then driving to work.

"It's a perk of federal employment: a free monthly subsidy that pays for commutes on public transportation. But scores of workers have been taking the government for a ride, selling their benefits on the Internet and pocketing millions in cash each year."

"The program, which covers 300,000 federal employees nationwide, has been abused by workers across a variety of agencies, the Government Accountability Office will report to Congress today. Workers in the Washington region alone have defrauded the government of at least $17 million a year, with the actual figure probably several million dollars higher, according to the GAO."

"Employees have taken the benefit vouchers, known locally as Metrocheks, and turned them into a kind of black-market currency, selling them -- often at a discount off the face value -- to buyers who can use them to ride Metro, regional buses or commuter railroads."

"Workers have been accepting the transit subsidies but driving to work, or claiming a subsidy far greater than their commuting costs and selling the excess, GAO investigators found."

Source: The Washington Post, April 24, 2007
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There is lots of theory, and lots of wonderful mathematics, and even lots of dealmaking. But the financial engineers are not real engineers who take responsibility for the bridges that fall down. They have no notion of a safety factor.