In the name of Employee Morale
The latest scandal in the GSA where an official is taking the 5th at a Congressional Hearing is troubling. It's a shame that this is the way truth is being discovered or buried. I'm positive there are rules that require people to be frugal in the use of public funds. There are aspects of the law to educate and inform those in charge administering the law and there is the usual management idea that it is good to get away from the office so that people can get focused and do some really good planning.
Road trips for government employees are part of the job for some. Even local travel to attend meetings happens all the time. Some meetings relate to policy making and others are routine but necessary. Road trips that include airfare, car rentals, hotel bills, and meal money are part of the band of usual suspects that need to be roped in occasionally. Truth be told sometimes these meetings are really good and sometimes you get home and wish you had been able to spend your time on a more valuable activity. Conference calls and video conferencing have or should lowered expenses for travel but in the case of the Western States Conference it just seems to have shifted the budget from the necessary to something much more extravagant.
Higher ups in the bureaucracy don't give up much gracefully. The inevitable comparison with the private sector isn't always valid. Mostly they do what they do because they can. What should have been reviewed either wasn't reviewed or viewed as reasonable. You don't need an Inspector General. If you do need an Inspector General to tell you what is reasonable you should have been terminated a long time ago.
The private sector has many of the same problems. What is a legitimate expense for one is a tragic waste of money for another.
Misuse of taxpayer money hardly ever gets repaid and politics being what it is these days, the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater.
Road trips for government employees are part of the job for some. Even local travel to attend meetings happens all the time. Some meetings relate to policy making and others are routine but necessary. Road trips that include airfare, car rentals, hotel bills, and meal money are part of the band of usual suspects that need to be roped in occasionally. Truth be told sometimes these meetings are really good and sometimes you get home and wish you had been able to spend your time on a more valuable activity. Conference calls and video conferencing have or should lowered expenses for travel but in the case of the Western States Conference it just seems to have shifted the budget from the necessary to something much more extravagant.
Higher ups in the bureaucracy don't give up much gracefully. The inevitable comparison with the private sector isn't always valid. Mostly they do what they do because they can. What should have been reviewed either wasn't reviewed or viewed as reasonable. You don't need an Inspector General. If you do need an Inspector General to tell you what is reasonable you should have been terminated a long time ago.
The private sector has many of the same problems. What is a legitimate expense for one is a tragic waste of money for another.
Misuse of taxpayer money hardly ever gets repaid and politics being what it is these days, the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater.
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