Audit planned as VA employees rack up $2.6 billion in credit card charges for veterans’ care

WASHINGTON – Veterans Affairs employees last year racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in government credit-card bills at casino and luxury hotels, movie theaters and high-end retailers such as Sharper Image and Franklin Covey – and government auditors are investigating, citing past spending abuses.\nAll told, VA staff charged $2.6 billion to their government credit cards.\nThe Associated Press, through a Freedom of Information Act request, obtained the VA list of 3.1 million purchases made in the 2007 budget year. The list offers a detailed look into the everyday spending at the government’s second largest department.\nBy and large, it reveals few outward signs of questionable spending, with hundreds of purchases at prosthetic, orthopedic and other medical supply stores.\nBut there are multiple charges that have caught the eye of government investigators.\nAt least 13 purchases totaling $8,471 were charged at Sharper Image, a specialty store featuring high-tech electronics and gizmos such as robotic barking dogs. In addition, 19 charges worth $1,999.56 were made at Franklin Covey, which sells leather totes and planners geared toward corporate executives.\nGovernment reports in 2004 said these two companies, by virtue of the types of products they market, would “more likely be selling unauthorized or personal-use items” to federal employees.\nMany of the 14,000 VA employees with credit cards, who work at headquarters in Washington and at medical centers around the nation, also spent tens of thousands of dollars at Wyndham hotels in places such as San Diego, Orlando, Fla., and on the riverfront in Little Rock, Ark. One-time charges ranged up to $8,000.\nOn at least six occasions, employees based at VA headquarters made credit card charges at Las Vegas casino hotels totaling $26,198.\nVA spokesman Matt Smith said the department was reviewing these and other purchases as part of its routine oversight of employee spending. He noted that many of the purchases at Sharper Image and other stores included clocks for low-vision veterans, humidifiers, air purifiers, alarm devices and basic planner products.