POLITICS President Trump: 100+ Mornings After (Term 1 Complete)

Or they're dealing with public money & it just doesn't work that way. That is especially true for local govts. There are laws that govern how public money is spent complete with state auditors who will nail your ass to the wall if they can..

Even if I have money in my class account to buy supplies, if I go buy them without getting a purchase order signed, I won't get reimbursed. These safeguards should reassure you that your local tax money is being accounted for and not as an object of disgust.

 

My favorite is spending $3000 in labor to process a $200 purchase order. Its not as much about fraud and abuse (which occurs) as much as its about control.

 

And if there wasn't proper accounting, there would be roars of theft, fraud, etc.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't sounds like.

 

My opinion, after being in this situation as long as I have, is they want to make sure they're in charge of whose stealing what money.

 

I used to think this way, but no longer do. The overwhelming majority of purchases are legitimate (or can be sold as legitimate). We've instituted a system that inconveniences 100% of the people to protect against the 5% of fraud. Sure stories like going to Vegas and doing blow off hookers on the government dime sells newspapers, but its not remotely close to the norm. Furthermore, you can drop the hammer on these folks after the fact. Instead I get to spend 3 weeks justifying to a bean counter why I need to spend IT dollars to buy IT equipment. Equipment that me not having is incurring an opportunity cost of getting shit done by a team of 4 people. Or explaining why paying an extra $100 on a plane ticket make sense if it means I charge 4 hours less in labor due to not having a lay-over, but by the time we straighten that our prices have gone up and now I get to spend and extra $100 on top of that. But its just tax payer money so who cares if its a net negative, we're being "responsible". Fraud protections can exist in a way that's not retarded, but the powers that be can't seem to stop doing stupid shit.

 

And proper vetting can occur without being retarded.

This is nothing more than another page in "govt is bad" vs "govt is necessary" argument.

 

Then that's on the voters, the folks who put these people in office, to fix it. Elect better people. Blaming a perceived monolith is the easy way out. Responsibility is not a one way street.

 

This isn't a government is bad argument. Its a don't be stupid argument, we're being stupid. I give the government a lot of shit, but most of the people I work with in the government just want to do the right thing. It's the 5% that's certifiably retarded. There's not as many as those in the private sector, because businesses aren't in the business of losing money, it makes them less competitive. You can't convince me that our current fraud protections save any money. We feel good because we're doing "something" which is more important than doing what's needed.

How much money is the Tennessee school system saving by requiring you to explain the purchases you make for your classroom. Money I'm sure you spend every cent of anyways.

 

I've never been questioned about the legitimacy of a purchase in 25 years. Maybe part of that is that I only ask for what's needed instead of retarded things. I don't know, but there's simply a procedure that must be followed. Filling out a PO & and getting an administrator to sign it. It's a proper accounting of public money. Taxpayers should appreciate good stewardship of the very limited money I am allowed to spend.

 

I envy you. In my area any purchase or trip request is considered fraudulent until I produce a mountain of paperwork explaining why its needed, despite the fact that the government has already approved a material and travel budget and there is no profit incentive for my company to travel or buy anything. It's not uncommon for me to spend 5+ hours a week doing paperwork to support this crap, not to mention the office of 20 people processing the paperwork, and how ever many people are involved in the chain after them. I also love paying a 50% markup on something because Amazon isn't an approved government vendor.

2 months ago I had a guy that needed to travel to South Korea to provide training to some people stationed there as part of our contract. A bean counter said that trip wasn't necessary and denied it. Shortly thereafter a CW-4 called the girl up and instructed her how to take her head out of her ass and approve the trip. If I could have been a fly on that wall...

 

I have hoops as well. I'm not a fan of them, but it's not money hoops that bother me.

For example, I & another instructor are taking around 10 students to compete in a state technology competition in Chattanooga. It's a 3 day overnight trip. To get board approval, I had to submit an itinerary that accounted for every second of the day. That's impossible seeing how J have zero control over event scheduling. Wouldn't mind doing a general itinerary, but that's not good enough. Seems to me that it's a gotcha type thing if something happens even if it's completely beyond my control. Still had to do it though.

I don't mind doing things with a legitimate purpose. It's the useless crap I hate.

 

It should work exactly like you describe and no one can fault that. It does work pretty well the smaller the scale. The more people involved, the more of a cluster[uck fay] it becomes.

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/miami....hool-treasurer-accused-of-stealing-funds/amp/

 

"I tried to tell you."

-Beecher

 

https://hbr.org/2019/03/a-big-step-toward-giving-patients-control-over-their-health-care-data

 

The horrific Christchurch shooting is the perfect opportunity to talk about the dangers posed by an immigrant, but not one person has taken that angle despite lots of commentary on the shooting here in the US. I don't wonder why. I know why. I am just pointing it out.

 

Mueller report is in. Hopefully they release all that they can.

 

I'm sure this guy will have the "real" scoop.

 

Care to counter anything he says?