Throwback Thursday: Officials Received Chauffeur Service Worth Millions
In the 1980s, various federal agencies billed taxpayers $3.4 million – $12.4 million in 2023 dollars – to shuttle 190 government officials to and from their offices with a door-to-door chauffeur service.
Sen. William Proxmire, a Democrat from Wisconsin, awarded these officials his Golden Fleece Award for this wasteful spending.
For this award, Proxmire surveyed officials from multiple agencies about their use of private chauffeurs, and found that three agencies were especially guilty: the Department of Defense, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
The DOD had 60 officials eligible for the service, the most of any agency. HUD boasted the most expensive automobile of any agency at $9,588 ($35,000 in 2023 dollars), twice as much as the average car cost. Still, the CIA racked up the most overtime, with the CIA director’s chauffeur earning more in overtime pay than he did in his base salary.
Technically, only cabinet level officials were allowed to take advantage of the chauffeur service, with other officials allowed to use chauffeurs on official business, but not to commute to work. Regardless, many claimed excuses, with one official stating the service “enables [him] to conserve [his] valuable time and be more productive,” while another simply stated that his use of a government chauffeured automobile was “in the government’s interest”.
The DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, however, found these and many other such excuses to be invalid.
The bureaucrats that made excuses to take advantage of the program left taxpayers with the bill for their commute. Proxmire’s recommendation for these officials? “Let them ride the bus to work to study how effective our transportation system is.”
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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