DOJ chows down on $16 muffins, washes them down with $1.00 an ounce coffee.

[dgibby]

(AP) WASHINGTON - Muffins: $16 apiece. Coffee: more than a dollar an ounce. Snacks: $32 per person.


A report issued Tuesday by the Justice Department's inspector general found excessive spending on food and beverages in an audit of 10 department conferences.



snip...


At another conference, the department's Office on Violence Against Women spent $65 per person at a lunch for 65 people. Coffee cost more than $1 an ounce. A snack break at the same conference cost $32 per person for Cracker Jack, popcorn and candy bars.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/20/national/main20108900.shtml

So, let me get this straight. One in every 6 people in this country are living at or below the poverty line, Grandma is eating catfood, and we're footing the bill for this?
Words fail.

[Autumn]

1. Should have served the fuckers some

peas. What a disgrace.

[Yo_Mama]

3. And one wonders what was in the Cracker Jack?

Really.

[Autumn]

10. Gold coins or diamond rings?

Nice fat checks? God only knows.

[Yo_Mama]

2. Austerity for the poor, wagyu beef for the governing class

This sort of stuff is bound to show up in a campaign ad somewhere.

Before we go after Grannie's $867 monthly SS check and the unemployed lady's food stamps, we might want to tighten the belts elsewhere first. Otherwise, it we have a revolt on our hands.

[wtmusic]

4. At least the inspector general isn't on the take.

Thank heaven for small favors.

[FarCenter]

5. Sounds high, but not completely unreasonable for hotel conference refreshments

If you've never arranged a conference at a hotel, you'd be shocked at what the better hotels charge per person for break refreshments.

[dgibby]

7. I don't object to them eating caviar if that's what they want,

as long as the taxpayer isn't footing the bill; otherwise, they can brown bag it. Besides, in this day and age, they don't have to "go" to these places. They can teleconference. This is outrageous, and needs to stop.

[ashling]

11. Fair point, but

providing water, hot & cold, and let the participants bring their own additives (instant coffee, etc.), brown bag for snacks, maybe take up a collection and send out for pop-tarts?

[izquierdista]

12. Hotels gotta make money somehow

And an 800% markup on Krispy Kreme donuts from across the street is an excellent way to do it!

[global1]

23. I'm In Agreement With You On This.....

I was in downtown Chicago the other day and found out that one of the downtown hotels was charging $54.00/day for parking. That's absolutely ridiculous. That's more than most day charges for a car rental. I'm not endorsing the fact that the DOJ paid those exorbitant fees. If they were really frugal they would hold conferences at smaller hotels on the outskirts of the cities so they can economize - like Holiday Inn Express - where they offer free parking, free internet, free breakfast and reduced rates on meeting rooms. I'm sure their food bills would be less too.

Seems to me there is a job here for someone to organize their meetings and negotiate their costs. I would do it for them if I could get a percentage of the money I could save for them.

[FarCenter]

28. 10 out of 1832 conferences are being cherry picked

Justice spent about $490,000 on food and beverages at the conferences — more than 10 percent of the $4.4 million total cost of the events.

In response, the Justice Department concurred with the IG's recommendations to more closely monitor costs.

The department hosted or participated in 1,832 conferences in 2008 and 2009, costing $121 million.

The IG's report said that at a Washington, D.C., legal conference, the department spent $4,200 on 250 muffins — or more than $16 apiece.

It would be interesting to find out whether the 10 offending conferences were in 2008 or 2009. Note also that we're talking about 10 out of 1832 conferences. And Chris Christie might have attended, which certainly would have run up the tab.

[blkmusclmachine]

6. Money to burn, just none of it for us..

They scarf down filet mignon. And we get stuck with the bill. Who's gonna hold them accountable? Evidence so far says NO ONE. They'll do exactly what they want, because we have no voice.

Too Big To Fail VS. Too Small To Matter. Who do you think WINS?

[dgibby]

8. Close.

According to the CBS report this am, they served Beef Wellington at one of their conferences. I almost fell off the sofa when I heard that.

[LynneSin]

9. Damn, and I thought $4 for my Cappucino and Muffin was a splurge

go figure

[Johonny]

13. I refuse to get mad at stupid things like this

these are republican talking points. Finding small items that look like waste, fraud and abuse and trying to turn us against our Government. Government overhead is generally vastly lower than corporate overhead. If a government worker gets to eat a nice muffin once an a while and drink decent coffee, I say who gives a rats ass. What are they suppose to eat grool and drink urine. How horrible should their working conditions be to make us feel better about ourselves. Will we balance the budget by cutting out every small perk enjoyed by a government worker, while we fight to the death to make sure those corporate jets stay running at all times?

Attacking workers and benefits and small pennyannie crap is what the GOP want. They want us attacking each other so they can rob us blind.

[GSLevel9]

16. Not REPUBLICAN talking points...

THOUGHTFUL talking points.

Cronyism at it's best, wonder whose cousin owns the catering company?

[L. Coyote]

19. You wonder whose cousin owns the catering company?

I wonder if the catering company is undocumented workers at $5 an hour. The facility is doing the markup, not the delivery dudette!

[GSLevel9]

25. doesn't matter... the government shouldn't be stuck holding the tab. nt

[L. Coyote]

26. You wonder if the USG procurer has a cousin in the hotel! Or, is everyone corrupt now?

A sustainable society should not have to collapse to end the corruption of the money vortex of politics.

[Dreamer Tatum]

22. Bringing the GOP into this argument is an admission that you have nothing.

The GOP hasn't shit to do with this ridiculous waste.

[Tsiyu]

14. They deserve the best

and anyway, what's breaking the federal budget is all the single moms getting an extra box of Little Debbies this week, and all those greedy old people who want roofs over their heads and dumb stuff like that, and high taxes on the astoundingly wealthy.

If you cut taxes for the very well-to-do, and stop giving people food stamps, the DOJ can eat this well all the time with no worries! Then what will you find to complain about?




:sarcasm:

[spin]

15. Don't tell me that we can't reduce government spending ...

All departments of the government should have an immediate 10% cutback in funding, and at least a 5% cutback nest year. This could easily be accomplished by eliminating waste and improving efficiency.

I worked for a large corporation for 37 years and we often faced such cutbacks. Improving efficiency and implementing cost saving measures were always emphasized. An employee suggestion program resulted in considerable savings and the employees who made the suggestions benefited financially.

At one time the company had a fund that provided coffee and donuts at the morning meetings. One day that ended. If we wanted coffee and donuts at the meetings, we had to provide our own. Usually the department manager paid for Dunkin Donuts out of his own pocket and picked them up on his way to work. Corporation wide, this probably saved a bundle.

[jwirr]

17. Interesting - I have worked in government offices and we all brought

goodies to share with our fellow workers. We did not dine out on the taxpayers dollar. This should be stopped. I have never worked where they company served snacks.

[kestrel91316]

18. Bleeding the beast from inside. I would lay serious odds that the jerks behind this

sort of waste consistently vote Repig.

Monkeywrenching.

[valerief]

20. Yep, but it's STILL not as unethical as the WAR BUDGET. nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

21. $16 muffins? I can get a whole cake at Ralphs for that and have change left over

[Johonny]

24. Conference centers tend to be more expensive :)

they often know you are traveling and on a tight time schedule so they can get you for $$ on cheap items.

These type of look how expensive so and so was government waste articles are a distraction. A conservative trick often used to get liberals and conservatives to focus on what appears to be small government waste. I helps reinforce their illusion the government is inefficient and more expensive than private companies. Something that not often true. Often these line items when look actually closely by auditors turn out to not be waste fraud and abuse. No Republican has ever been able to balance a budget by getting rid of these things, although they all claim to be able to. The fact is overhead in government agencies just isn't that high. You can not significantly lower costs by these methods. What really happens is they cut into the salaries, benefits of the American people and effectiveness of our agencies. All this to distract from real abuses in spending and more important was to balance budgets by finally returning tax levels to levels that could sustain our government.

Do I think cutting 16 $ muffins at a conference will somehow save the US even million a year. Do I think US agencies don't generally have vastly stricter travel expense accounts than non-government agencies. No. So why do I care? Why should I allow myself get distracted by this issue?

The GOP they sucker people with these issues time and time again. The middle class and the poor fighting over a 16 $ muffin, while Rome burns. Amazing.

[Angry Dragon]

27. The full report can be found here

http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/plus/index.htm
Audit of Department of Justice Conference Planning and Food and Beverage Costs, Audit Report 11-43, September 2011

Some here feel that it is a waste of time to try to cut out this type of waste. I disagree. If belt tightening needs to be done it has to start somewhere.

[LatteLibertine]

29. Often

the government wastes your money so they may ask for more. I love seeing proper programs supported and there is a lot of waste in the system from corruption.