Next time the Park Service begs you for money remember this article:

Park Service jet-setters grounded

BTW, I'm an outdoorsman, but let's be sensible about where the money goes!

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Current:
2014 VW Tiguan SEL 4Motion 43,000 miles.

2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport (wife's).

Past:
2006 Jetta TDI 135,970 miles. Sold Nov. '13.
1995 E-320 Special Edition. 220,200 miles. Sold Sept. '07.
1987 190-E 16 valve. 153,000 miles. Sold Feb. '06.
1980 300-D 225,000 miles. Donated to the National Kidney Foundation.
1980 240-D manual, 297,500 miles. Totaled by inattentive driver.

Good one Stefano. I'll bet if they dug deeper they'd find that many of these travelers were appointees rather than GS. Its not just Park Service--its all departments and agencies. What chaps my soft parts is that we've been in a modestly shrinking budget in DoI since Clinton and these jerks spend money while valuable programs wither.

Not all meetings are wasteful junkets. Many professional and scientific meetings really do enhance employee performance, if for no other reason than t reward employees for a job well done through presentation of results and prof/sci meetings. I go to those meetings 2-4 times/year and authorize subordinates to attend them as well. Just for meetings, I have never gone international nor have my subordinates.

Perhaps it is time for a little management 'restructuring' at the Park Service?

It sounds as if they've significantly broadened their mandate from "protecting pickinick baskets"........

What also gets me mad is how every government agency adopts the attitude of "spend it or lose it next year" in regards to how much money they get from the Feds.

I work in television and see incredibly expensive equipment at various government agencies collecting dust because they don't need it. They only buy the stuff so they use up all their alotted funds. If they spend less than the Feds give them, they'll get less the following year. It's a recipe for waste, and we taxpayers are eating more than we like.

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Current:
2014 VW Tiguan SEL 4Motion 43,000 miles.

2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport (wife's).

Past:
2006 Jetta TDI 135,970 miles. Sold Nov. '13.
1995 E-320 Special Edition. 220,200 miles. Sold Sept. '07.
1987 190-E 16 valve. 153,000 miles. Sold Feb. '06.
1980 300-D 225,000 miles. Donated to the National Kidney Foundation.
1980 240-D manual, 297,500 miles. Totaled by inattentive driver.

thats one thing I hate too. it works with people as well. a friend of mine was hired as one of three new govt. employees, even though the department only needs one right now. in two years, they are expanding and need the three, and the two extras are being used as placeholders. that way, they'll get the people they need when they need them in the future without a fight. take it when you can get it...

working for umpteen non-profits, I've seen a lot of this- spend what was budgeted or lose it. and if you are frugal and dont use it then later need something big, you are screwed. the logic is well intended I guess, but horribly wasteful in practice. I was a camp director once and was reqired to spend what was budgeted every month or lose it forever. imagine, buying peanut butter in bulk in june so as not to run out for a 0 budget in july. insanity.

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It drives us nuts in the Fed, too! Every budget is timed. If it extends beyond one FY its called carry-over or some such. Mostly we have annual budgets.

There is no method built into the system to reward frugal budgeting. In fact, if you have too much year-end money, somebody else up the food chain will snatch your money and spend it on their year-end pet project. If some upstream jerk is gonna blow it on his project, why shouldn't I blow it on mine, first? Etc. Its a terrible system. Every field office that I've ever dealt with faces the same stupid thing every year. Heck yeah we all feel used by it. It sucks.

I have never heard aybody in Congress or any administration propose an alternative. I am left with the belief that THEY MUST LIKE IT! I have no idea why.

Botnst

Botnst does the fed have the spend it or lose it philosphy?

I can't elaborate but I've seen gov. money go to some very strange places just because if the $$$ isn't spent they will lose that allocation the following year.

Spend or lose? Yes. Our FY begins Oct 1. In August we have our accounts frozen except what's set aside in reimbursibles and temp accounts for travel and such. On Sept 30, the temp accounts revert to the cost center.

On Oct 1 theoretically, carry-over funds become available when Congress passes a funding authoriation (this year we didn't get it until January--recall by law its supposed to start Oct 1. Congress just changes the law and presto! No problem. Don't you wish your company could change laws PRN? Then, new FY funding comes available. But really, the gove is writing hot checks for sometines over a month because OMB dribbles it out like gruel at the River Kwai.

The funds that were in either temp accounts or whose authorization expired gets yanked upstream where each layer spends money on its pet project while the next tier starts grasping down to get hold of the money so they can spend it. Every year we get a warning not to do that. Riiiight....

There is no reward, no attaboy for not spending to zero-out the account. Now I cannot, of course embezzle. That's not a good think. The gov can be as harsh as they choose. But I can buy supplies and equipment which will save me some money next FY.

And so forth.

So the reward is all loaded toward depleting funds, not returning them. Why?

B

If Congress ever set up a "Waste, Fraud and Abuse" website where you could enter tips in anonymously, they would be overwhelmed. People don't want to call the 800 hotline number on little stuff and have their voice recorded, etc.

But if there were a website where you could proxy in your information, and have it filter down to the organizations involved, a lot of this waste would be exposed.

A good friend of mine works in an organization where one department routinely calls meetings in Maui. And the installation in Maui is the one most heavily monitored by the staff.

It really is the government that is supporting the airline industry in the country, and not just through direct loans, giveaways and subsidies. There's a TON of unnecessary travel.

Oh, and by the way, government entities have learned to "bank" their money with their support contractors to extend the fiscal year funds. If you have excess funds you obligate that to your contractors for work way out in advance. The next fiscal year you've already paid your contractors - so you can increase the travel budget - party on!

Ken300D

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1982 300D at 351K miles
1984 300SD at 217K miles
1987 300D at 370K miles

Ken, we do some of that stuff with contractors but we do it only with money that must be spent before the FY ends. Kind of like buying a case of printer paper or some such out of dying accounts before they're drained by the vampires above.

If we were to lose that bit of discretion there would probably be an awful lot of contractors at home until the budget finally gets released. Recall that portions of this years budget weren't released until last month. October to February is a long time between paychecks, even for fatcat contractors.

The root o fthe problem is that the gov is just too dang big. Any company that got this big would've failed and been sold in peices. But we cannot allow the gov to fail (say some folks). Heck, we can't even put it on an Atkins diet. When leadership tries every special interest cranks-up the screaming meemies to hound Congress.

My own favorite special interest groups have protected my agency several times.

B

I feel the exact same way.

Agreed Botnst, the government needs to be put on a diet. Someone should organize a massive tax payer revolt, way to much of are money is wasted. I would like to see the government shrink 50% or more to pre WW2 levels.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
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We are behind you 100%!

I really don't want to mess with the feds yet. I was hopeing for volunteers.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200