November 5, 2013 12:50PM 

# ICYMI: FMCS 

By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) 

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During the hullaballoo around the government shutdown, the *Washington Examiner* published a [jaw-dropping series of stories](http://washingtonexaminer.com/watchdog/just-sign-here) about blatant waste in an obscure federal agency called the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. These stories shouldn’t be missed.

Reporter Luke Rosiak writes:

> One federal employee leased a $53,000 take-home car with taxpayer money in apparent defiance of federal regulations and regularly billed the government for service at shops such as BMW of Fairfax.
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> Others charged the government monthly for family members’ cell phones and high-end TV packages and Internet at home — and even at second homes.
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> Managers freely made out checks to employees without requiring documentation of how it would be spent, giving $1,316 directly to one who said she was reimbursing herself for furniture she bought for a “home office” and using convenience checks to give workers bonuses.

Federal bureaucrats dole themselves these perqs in an agency where the median annual salary is already $120,000. Federal pay, of course, is something [Chris Edwards has highlighted](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/overpaid-federal-workers) for a long time.

[Rosiak’s stories on FMCS](http://washingtonexaminer.com/watchdog/just-sign-here) are worth a read. They’re worth more than that—like maybe some congressional oversight. Because internal oversight is failing.

“With three whistle-blowers gone,” he concludes, “there is little indication that the spending abuses have stopped.”

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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