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Time For New Furniture…
Posted by: in Bureaucracy, Front Page, Waste, Fraud and Abuse11:01 PM
It’s the end of the fiscal year, so for anyone who’s ever worked in the Government knows only too well, it’s time to spend all the money. After all, if you don’t spend all of what you got THIS year, you might not get as much NEXT year.
In the Federal Aviation Administration facility where I work, this year it means new furniture in all the management and administrative areas. It doesn’t matter that what is already there is beautiful, dark cherry, solid-wood furniture, and is barely six years old. It doesn’t matter that most of the furniture sits in unused offices. It doesn’t matter that it’s all in “like-new” condition. No, what matters is there is money to be spent, so spend it we must…or we might not get as much next year.
We’re replacing the receptionist desk, but we haven’t had a receptionist in ten years. We’re replacing the desk, credenza and bookshelves in the automation specialist office, but we haven’t had a local automation specialist in eight years. Of course, the manager and administrative assistant’s offices are both getting facelifts as well, along with the shared supervisor’s office (four workstations, all beautiful cherry wood, must be replaced).
GSA rules say that the “surplus” furniture must first be made available to other agencies, but why take used when you can buy new? It’ll wind up in a Federal auction to the public somewhere, and will be sold for a fraction of what the Government originally paid for it…and it’s in like-new condition.
All in all, we’re spending some $38,000 for new furniture to replace stuff that’s perfectly good and has another ten years or longer of useful life.
We’re just one tiny facility in one of the smaller federal agencies. This is your government at work. This is YOUR TAX DOLLARS at work.
I remember my Air Force days as a computer system analyst back in the 70’s when we all sat at gun-metal gray metal desks with slate tops, and probably got more work done than the average government employee today. I worked in an office that was more civilian than military, and our GS12 manager sat at a metal desk just like mine. We didn’t need the luxury of a high-dollar attorney’s office to get the job done.
And this is why we need REFORM, not “change”. We need SMALLER government, not bigger. We need LESS tax dollars, not more. We need major across-the-board slashes in government spending.
We need candidates who realize that the biggest problem in the US Government is the US Government itself, and who are willing to work to reform the system.
We need Joe the Plumber. We need Rick the Bricklayer, and Marty the Butcher. We need Sarah Palin.
What we DON’T need is a member of the Chicago thug regime rising to national power. What we don’t need is big-government solutions. What we don’t need is pie-in-the-sky “we’re gonna GIVE you…”.
Don’t give us ANYTHING. Stop taking from us, then wasting it.
Entries (RSS)
The Grey wolves of Chicago could only dream about the level :em98: of graft that we simply put up with today.
October 21st, 2008 at 12:00 AM:em98:
Using
AWWWW, SHIT, I remember when I was stationed on Ft. Benning, and at the end of the fed’s fiscal year, the suppy room was suddenly giving out “free” stainless steel thermoses, etc., in order to spend the year’s excess $$$ in the unit’s budget, otherwise they wouldn’t see it again the next fiscal year. Shit like that is SOOOO typical of fed agencies, rewarding excess and incompetence…..
October 21st, 2008 at 12:45 AMUsing
Don’t give us ANYTHING. Stop taking from us, then wasting it.
Preach it, Bother M…. Preach it.
Btw, same in the German army, buddy. End of the year, they exchanged two or three tank engines from our Leopard 2s. KMW had stated that the engines were good for around 10k km, which would probably be true for an engine used only on a big honkin all-out landwar. But in peace time training, they were good for 30k or more. But they were replaced, because there was budget to spend.
Everybody would have liked it more if we had received more training rounds or more diesel… you know train more, be better prepared… but those were rationed, engines weren’t…
October 21st, 2008 at 2:16 AMUsing
If that’s all you have to put up with, count yourself lucky. Over here in Blighty (hmm, that’s kinda appropriate given the topic, we are definitely blighted…) we have the old boys’ network screwing us over deliberately.
I work in computing. Here’s 2 stories my friends in the industry have told me.
1. A mate was asked to put a proposal together for a government contract. He put it together and submitted it to his manager for review. His manager said that his numbers were out. My friend reassured the manager that he had double checked the numbers and they were correct. The manager took him aside and asked ‘did the client mention a budget when you were talking to him?’. The answer was yes. The manager explained that the client (government department) was looking to dump their budget, and that he should multiply all the numbers by 5. My friend did that. The proposal was submitted, and accepted.
2. A mate was asked to put together a proposal for a government contract. The manager told him what to put in the covering letter. When this friend put the covering letter together, he found that it didn’t make sense, so he rewrote it. The manager, when reviewing this, went apeshit. He demanded that my friend rewrite the covering letter ‘exactly as he had specified’. The letter was rewritten according to the manager’s requirements and the proposal submitted. The proposal was accepted…
October 21st, 2008 at 3:08 AMUsing
Hail Rotts! :em04:
Great Article!!
I haven’t been around here much lately, I lost my programming job at the front end of this crisis and had to scramble to fix the situation. I found a furniture manufacturing job and have worked 15 days without a day off so far.
I don’t need a damn thing from the govt. except to be left alone by them.
Thanks to this blog for the occasional uplift.
A country boy can survive!!!
I AM JOE !!!! :em58: :em58: :em58:
October 21st, 2008 at 5:14 AMUsing
LC Panzermann sez:
Same in the ‘Murrican Army. The Supply Sergeant in my Company used to go out every September, to spend everything in the budget, down to the last farkin’ penny in the cookie jar. A normal item was to replace every tire, on every jeep in the motor pool. Now, I ask you, how often does the Battallion Commander’s jeep get driven? Three weeks out of the year?
Took more than three weeks to replace all of them!
What we didn’t really need all got listed by February as “expended” or “destroyed” in training.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:38 AMUsing
Not much has changed. I know that in every unit I’ve been in, this time of year comes around and the commanders are all screaming to spend spend spend!! Then the S-4’s and Supply SGT’s go out and buy the most ridiculous stuff that nobody needs and they totally ignore the high dollar stuff that would actually be put to good use.
I’ve served in a “civilianized” military unit as well and it’s even worse when the GS’s are running the show. The high ranking civilians have to have the newest and best looking furniture, gadgets and shiny new programs that aren’t worth a shit just because they have the money to spend. It’s sad.
Change. Right. Looks like the only thing that’s going to change is the signature at the bottom of the government appropriations bills.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:21 AMUsing
Where IS your DRMO? I’d absolutely LOVE to have a lot of the stuff you’re talking about! I used to have one of those big gray desks you were talking about for my reloading bench. As for the new furniture you’re shedding, I’d like to fix my house up with some of it I’m sure! Yeah, I remember the end of year spend-a-thons. But when I was filling out the forms I always made sure I ordered a whole bunch more of the stuff we never had enough of for benchstock. And the odd goodie that we really had been wanting all year but weren’t budgeted for. Like the A/V system for our classroom, and…
October 21st, 2008 at 8:45 AMUsing
RedneckProgrammer sez:
Hell. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 21st, 2008 at 8:46 AMUsing
The end of year spendout is a ridiculous animal. That money could be better spent on new aircraft (if you are part of a government flying unit, military or civilian), better equipment, etc. Instead, in the USAF we would buy LCD/Plasma TVs to put the FishTank Windows Screen Saver on. In my current government job, they went out and replaced our 48 inch projection TV in the crew lounge with a 50 inch LCD TV and Bose™ sound system (the cheap one, only 250-300 bucks). Sure, while I am sitting alert I can see the Cowgirls lose in High-Def, but when I get alerted, my plane is probably still broke, being that it is almost 30 years old, ridden hard and put up wet.
But under our current system, we just keep spending and spending and spending. If we don’t spend, then we can’t tell the American taxpayer to KEEP COUGHING IT UP! That is why I think that a spending freeze by McCain doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. Another reason that when I see Barack’s plans to open the Yummy Government Entitlement Programs Pandora’s Box™, I cringe. Putting more incompetent bozo’s in positions they can screw it up more…
October 21st, 2008 at 10:00 AM:em12:
Using
Hey, at least the USG actually goes out and buys stuff, whether or not they actually need it. In the third world shithole that I currently live in, waste of government funds and outright theft of national assets is a year-round affair, and very much done for personal gain. There are plenty of government officials here who have salaries of about $5,000 or so, yet have palatial homes, several new Mercedes cars, and send their kids to school in the US, Australia, or Europe. Any guesses where the extra money comes from? So yeah, it sucks that our tax dollars are wasted they way they are every year, and the bigger the government, the more the waste. I’d like to see our government intrude less into our lives, take less in taxes, and spend what it gets more wisely. But I’ve seen how other governments work, and believe me, it can get a whole lot worse. Unfortunately, under an Obambi administration, I think it would.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:11 AMUsing
Burn a few. Last time you were on about the training fiasco. So any normal person would spend it in that area, but then they aren’t allowed to hire qualified personel unless they’re minorities or Veterans. And what’s more, you guys need new up to date gear which you won’t get because radar scopes can’t vote, and the Senate Armed Service Committee chairman hates Raytheon.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:22 AMSo sit down in that new overstuffed and have a cold one. I won’t be flying anywhere soon. And happy retirement.
Using
Very happy to work in a huge, family owned, operated and held ag business in Mexifornistan. Worked for a defense contractor once, and saw everything you were talking about. Had to laugh, though, instead of getting a Christmas bonus at the old McDonnell Douglas, at Christmas you got five pounds each of Polish ham and Swedish cheese, which was part of the payments from those countries for the airplanes.
In this family firm, the majority of the upper management and sales team are relatives. Many of the associated employees (payroll, accounts payable, etc) have literally been here over 25 years. There’s about 45 people who work in the main building, and that doesn’t include any field supervisors or crew. Today one of the farm workers retired after 51 years (its true). There’s nothing wasted here. Everyone gets pretty much what they need. We don’t have any interaction with the government (no subsidies for these commodities!) but we do get to fight with the United Farm Workers every year. That’s a lot of fun.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:03 PMUsing
Goddamn — this is sooo farkin’ true.
The office manager where I work came by a while back and asked if I wanted an office “makeover”. All new furniture (Dark Cherry, of course), overhead LCD projector, automatic screen, large flat-screen monitor, …
Total bill = ~$38K for a 10 x 15 office.
I had to laugh, after I got thru choking first. Told him “No way — my current stuff is just fine”.
I came back from a business trip and the office had been re-done despite my orders — you guessed it; End-Of-Fiscal year time with buck$ to burn. I’m moving to a different office anyway in a few weeks, but this sort of thing is embarrassing.
And this is in a time of war.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:24 PMUsing
I remember the year I was ordered to spend $20k by end of year for a small group of 100 people. Insane.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:22 PMUsing
We did it in the Navy every year as well. What was sad was the way money was broken down you had x dollars for “Operations”, y dollars for “Training” and other monies for expected deployments and such (at a squadron level). You could NEVER take money from x and use it for y (or vice versa) the end result was some times we missed missions because of no Op funds while we still had maint money or training funds. and some times the reverse was true (though that didn’t happen til years end most of the time). And yet we still had to play the use all your money game at the end of the year with what ever was left over… instead of being able to allocate it at our level more intelligently. Go figure.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 PMUsing
We need less government, not more, and certainly many less liberal illuminati lefties ! If we allow Obama to get in office, it’s our fault. Remember what Pogo said? “We have met the enemy and he is us!!”
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:53 AMUsing