US Justice Department Audit Discovers $16 Muffins, $10 Cookies, $8 Coffee

The Obama administration has ordered federal agencies to do a complete expense review for conferences after an internal audit by the US Justice Department discovered “extravagant and wasteful” spending by the agency in 2009.

According to a report done by its own Office of Inspector General on Tuesday, the Justice Department spent $121 million on conferences from 2008-2009, exceeding its own spending limits.

The Obama administration has ordered federal agencies to do a complete expense review for conferences after an internal audit by the US Justice Department discovered “extravagant and wasteful” spending by the agency in 2009.

According to a report done by its own Office of Inspector General on Tuesday, the Justice Department spent $121 million on conferences from 2008-2009, exceeding its own spending limits.

The audit, which focused on 10 conferences held during the two years, discovered that the department had spent $16 per muffin on each of the 250 muffins served at an August 2009 conference in Washington, while paying up to $600,000 for event planning services for five of the above-mentioned conferences.

Other examples of “extravagant” spending reported included brownies and cookies that cost $10 each, an 8-ounce cup of coffee that cost $8, and snacks – including Cracker Jack and popcorn – that had cost $32 per person.

[quote]”The Justice Department appears to be blind to the economic realities our country is facing,” said Republican senator Chuck Grassley, in a statement cited by the Los Angeles Times. “”Sixteen dollar muffins and $600,000 for event planning services are what make Americans cynical about government and why they are demanding change. People are outraged, and rightly so.”[/quote]

Republican House Representative Frank Wolf added, “It is clear that while American taxpayers were tightening their belts and making difficult financial decisions, the department was splurging on wasteful snacks and drinks as well as unnecessary event planning ‘consultants’.”

According to a statement by the Justice Department, the agency is now taking steps “to ensure that these problems do not occur again.”

“We agree that excessive spending of the types identified in the OIG report should not occur,” said a spokeswoman quoted by the Los Angeles Times.

In the mean time, the Obama administration has imposed parameters for all federal agencies, until the review is entirely conducted. Every deputy secretary or equivalent chief operating officer of a federal agency will have to sign off on all conference-related expenses, to ensure accountability at the very top.

Vice President Joe Biden, who is overseeing administration efforts to cut wasteful spending, will also hold a meeting with agency heads in December to “ask each and every one of them what they are doing to get on top of conference-related expenses and cut waste in this area and in other parts of their operations.”