Purchase card revoked at Spawar site

Purchase Cards: Continued Control Weaknesses Leave Two Navy Units Vulnerable to Fraud and Abuse

The head of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command has revoked the government-issued purchase cards at Spawar sites worldwide after continuing reports of waste, fraud and abuse particularly at the Spawar Systems Center.

Spawar will re-activate the cards for mission-critical uses as management and oversight of the program is improved.

Spawar, under intense scrutiny and pressure from the Pentagon, Congress and auditors, took the dramatic action after a review of just a small number of the cards showed personnel had purchased items ranging from groceries to Lego robots to designer luggage -- and even one person who used the card to pay for his girlfriend's breast enlargement operation.

"I am serious about remedying this clearly unacceptable situation. I intend to personally verify that the situation has improved and report findings to you by the end of May," said Deidre Lee, director of Defense procurement at a March 13 hearing held by the House Government Reform Committee's Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee.

The House hearing comes just eight months after Navy officials told lawmakers that reports of fraud were overblown and that they would take steps to ensure that money was being spent correctly.

Procurement officials have said that purchase cards - which are government-issued credit cards - have streamlined ordering processes by eliminating reams of paperwork for small-ticket items. Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) had put forward a bill that would raise the definition of small-ticket items from $2,500 to $25,000.

"If the [purchase limit] goes up, new cars and homes are next," said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, at the hearing.

"The benefits of the purchase card may be substantially reduced if controls are not in place to ensure its proper use," said Gregory Kutz, the General Accounting Office's director of financial management and assurance.

Lawmakers were incensed that they were having to review this issue again and that so little had been done since the July 2001 hearing. Rep. Stephen Horn (R-Calif.), the subcommittee chairman, said the testimony "dismisses congressional oversight as merely a nuisance that must be endured but can then be ignored."

"We're talking about a culture that has to be changed," said Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-Ill.), the subcommittee's ranking minority member. DOD has not made it clear that they cannot get away with such acts. "I think they understand that they can get away with it," she said.

Tina Jonas, DOD's deputy undersecretary for financial management, said, "We will not tolerate the failure to apply DOD rules" governing the purchase-card program. To that end, DOD has made the purchase-card program an area of special emphasis, a move that Jonas said would require additional reviews and reporting requirements.

Both the Spawar Systems Center and the Navy Public Works Center, both based in San Diego and the subject of the GAO audits, have new leadership. Capt. Patricia Miller, commanding officer of Spawar Systems Center, and Capt. James Barrett, commanding officer of the Navy Public Works Center, both said they were instituting measures that would ensure proper procedures were followed.

"I'm personally committed to changing the culture at my command to permanently improve this important and vital program," Miller testified. "We agree there was a command climate that permitted these abuses."

The site's enterprise resource planning initiative, which recently went online, would help the center improve its oversight of the program, Miller said.