State Senator John Cauthorn, R-Mexico, this week "awarded" a Golden Goose Egg to the state's Office of Administration for the agency's lax, if non-existent, oversight of a credit card-based purchasing program.

"This may have started out on paper as a good idea," Cauthorn said. "But what we have now is an annual potential liability to taxpayers of nearly $200 million worth of un-checked credit card purchases."

Launched in 1998 under the auspices of "streamlining" the procurement process, the program now involves over 2,600 state employees, who each have credit cards with spending limits of up to $3,000 … per month. The program requires no approval for credit card purchases of up to $1,000.

As you might suspect, and as outlined in a report on the ill-advised program produced by the state auditor, an alarming number of questionable, if not outright improper, purchases have been made with the cards.

The audit details purchases made by a MoDOT employee who used the card to buy wristwatches, knives, travel cases even "six-pack" beverage coolers all collectively costing the state more than $10,000. MoDOT, long in the fight for attaining accountability and credibility, defends the purchases, saying the items are for the department's "employee catalogue store" (the purpose of the catalog itself raising another host of questions). The auditor, and the average taxpayer careening across MoDOT-"maintained" roadways, consider these types of items ripe for "growing legs."

"The auditor uses the term "attractive," as in attractive for personal use and easily pilfered," Cauthorn said. "Right now, I think suspending this entire program until a set of checks and balances is in place would be very attractive to taxpayers."

While credit card purchasing rules and regulations have been "streamlined" almost to the point of non-existence, the program does strictly prohibit using the cards to buy stamps or to pay for auto repairs. Of course, the audit revealed that Department of Conservation employees in fact bought more than $2,500 in postage stamps using the streamlined credit cards; and MoDOT employees paid for more than $2,500 in auto repairs with the convenient plastic.

"I wonder if we haven't issued these cards to the wrong parties," Cauthorn mused while reading over the audit report. "Maybe we ought to be sending these out with the state tax forms we mail out each year. Taxpayers are on the hook for the tab anyway, and this way, they'd at least be paying off credit card bills for things they actually wanted."

Chairman of the Senate's Government Accountability and Fiscal Oversight Committee, Cauthorn earlier this year patterned the Golden Goose Egg Award after the actions of a former U.S. Senator who regularly handed out "Golden Fleece" awards to government agencies and entities executing less-than-capable fiscal policy.

"Certainly, this is a light approach to weighty problems," Cauthorn said. "But if a little egg on someone's face helps curb government waste, then why not make it a Golden Goose Egg?"