Federal Times would like to hear from you regarding the $1.1 million in controversial expenses made by the Washington-area Combined Federal Campaign.
As we first reported last night, the Office of Personnel Management’s inspector general criticized a string of expenses made by Global Impact between 2007 and 2009, including:
- $11,315 for a night out for 600 at a Washington Nationals game;
- $1,500 to hire Howard University’s jazz band for a conference;
- $1,159 for a nighttime tour of Washington;
- $680 for chair massages; and
- $102,503 for meals over three years.
How does this make you feel? Does it shake your confidence in how the federal government’s massive charity drive is run? Will it make you think twice about donating to, or volunteering for, the CFC? Or do you think the revelations are no big deal? Write me at slosey@federaltimes.com. If you’d like to share your thoughts anonymously, that’s fine.
7 Comments
I have stopped all CFC contributions. 3 years without a raise and now this….. no way are they getting another $. I do not even encourage my employees to give either…
$11,315 for 600 is less than $20 a peson. I’m not a fan of CFC in general, but this is hardly earth shattering.
Its a shame that such a good program has to be tarnish by the activities of some individuals that believe they are entitled to special previleges. To often in an attempt to supposedly built team work these special events resulted in expenses that are not appropriate. As bad as these charges are you can see what the attempted was. But when it comes to charging meals there is no reasonable explanation. That is just plan criminal and obvious needs to stop. The CFC is to valuable a program to let some bad apples tarnish it.
I would expect this from anything ‘D.C.’. As near as I can tell there are really only two agenda’s in D.C., and one of them revolves around making people feel good by giving them something ‘for free’…irrespective of the cost to others.
I think the CFC should be completely abolished in today’s budget climate. The overhead is far too high and there are far more efficient ways federal employees can donate to the causes they see fit.
Have you looked at the absolutely absurd “charities” included in the CFC? OPM has screwed this program up just like many of their other functions and, like OPM, it should have been abolished long ago. In another OPM program for instance, GS 9 and 11 employees were able to steal nearly 15 million dollars over several years without any knowledge of supervisors, managers, or the Inspector General. The money was never recovered. OPM programs always make me wonder where alot of cash is being handed off under the table.
Given the budget climate today and the fact that we have had no raises in 2 years and Congress is threatening to take away future raises and retirement benefits…I think the entire CFC should be set aside. If people want to donate to charities, then they can do so. I volunteer and donate to charities but I do so privately. I don’t feel the need to “wave the flag” of my donations at work. This was a good idea, but it has out-lived it’s usefulness.