"Census Bureau wasted millions, audit finds
Sorry, the page you have requested does not exist at this address.
- If you are trying to reach a Boston.com page from a bookmark, the address may have changed, or the page may have been eliminated. Please use the sections above to browse for what you're looking for, or visit our home page.
- You can find articles by using the search box above, or by going to our Search page.
- If you need immediate assistance, please visit our Help Center or contact us by filling out our feedback form.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
-- Your friends at Boston.com--"Yeah, I love seeing that.
What I am STARING AT in my PRINTED PAPER CLIPPING on the DESK, readers:
"Millions wasted on census as head count approaches
WASHINGTON – Were those pricey Super Bowl ads a waste?
I thought so.
Maybe not, but paying $3 million to census employees who didn't do any work surely was.
The Census Bureau, a month away from its 2010 population count, has already wasted millions of dollars paying temporary employees who never did the work and others who overbilled for travel, according to excerpts of an audit obtained by The Associated Press.
Yup, YOUR GOVERNMENT at WORK for you, taxpayers!
On a positive note, federal investigators said it was appropriate for the Census Bureau to spend $133 million on its advertising campaign, including $2.5 million for Super Bowl spots that some Republicans derided as wasteful.
But the report Commerce Department inspector general Todd Zinser makes clear the government is at risk of wasting millions of additional dollars without tighter spending controls by the Census Bureau on its 1 million temporary workers....
The findings highlight the difficult balancing act for the Census Bureau as it takes on the Herculean task of manually counting the nation's 300 million residents amid a backdrop of record levels of government debt.
Tell me again why we can't have health care and all the other things we want while getting bank bailouts and wars we do not.
Because the population count, done every 10 years, is used to distribute House seats and billions of dollars in federal aid, many states are pushing for all-out government efforts in outreach since there is little margin for error, particularly for minorities and the poor, who tend to be undercounted. At the same time, the national head count will be the most expensive ever, making it a particularly visible sign of rising government spending.
The federal hiring has been praised by the government for giving a lift to the nation's sagging employment rate, but investigators found it also brought waste....
Yeah, it was a lift even if they never did anything.
Yup, government waving around waste and calling it a good thing and evidence of job growth. Great.
The project finished ahead of schedule, but Census Bureau director Robert Groves acknowledged in October the costs had ballooned $88 million, or 25 percent, over the original estimate of $356 million. He promised to work to stop expenses from rising further and said he would reevaluate budget estimates for the entire census operation.
Groves has said he hopes to return tens of millions of dollars to government coffers by motivating more U.S. residents to mail in their form, which avoids costly follow-up visits by census takers. The bureau has said that if 1 percent of Super Bowl viewers change their minds and mail in their form, it will save taxpayers $25 million to $30 million in follow-up costs.
Yeah, somehow wasting taxpayer dollars is going to save taxpayer's dollars.
Is there no limit to the amount of shit government and MSM expect us to eat 'cause I'm full up?
Most people will receive census forms in mid-March, and the Census Bureau is asking residents to return them by April. For those who fail to respond, the government will dispatch some 700,000 temporary workers to visit homes in May.
Among the audit findings:
More than 10,000 census employees were paid more than $300 apiece to attend training for the massive address-canvassing effort, but they quit or were let go before they could perform any work. Cost: $3 million....
Where is my $300 check for doing nothing, government?
Census regional offices that had mileage costs exceeding their planned budgets included Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City and Seattle.
The Super Bowl advertising — which included a 30-second spot in the third quarter, two 30-second pregame spots and on-air mentions — was panned by media critics as weak and ineffective....
Like all advertising. They are turn-offs -- literally (click).
But the inspector general's report said the advertising was consistent with government goals of boosting participation in the count.
Was it worth it, exhausted AmeriKan taxpayers?
