US Agencies Waste Millions Without Accountability

[From article]
The federal government has spent at least $20 billion in taxpayer money this year on items and services that it is permitted to keep secret from the public, according to an investigation by the News4 I-Team.
The purchases, known among federal employees as “micropurchases,” are made by some of the thousands of agency employees who are issued taxpayer-funded purchase cards. The purchases, in most cases, remain confidential and are not publicly disclosed by the agencies. A sampling of those purchases, obtained by the I-Team via the Freedom of Information Act, reveals at least one agency used those cards to buy $30,000 in Starbucks Coffee drinks and products in one year without having to disclose or detail the purchases to the public.
[. . .]
A “micropurchase” is a purchase costing less than $3,000 in which a government-issued purchase card is swiped. The U.S. Departments of State, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Defense, each made tens of millions of dollars of “micropurchases” in the past year,
[. . .]
        These agencies refused to provide details
        U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
        EPA
        Department of Transportation:
        U.S. State Department
        Health and Human Services
        Department of Homeland Security

http://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/Federal-Government-Made-20-Billion-in-Secret-Purchases-in-Recent-Months-280997562.html

Federal Government Made $20 Billion in Secret Purchases in Recent Months
I-Team review finds $30,000 in one agency’s Starbucks purchases kept confidential from public
By Scott MacFarlane
October 30, 2014