US Census Wasted Millions Leading Up to the Count

Try getting away with this in the private sector, at least that part of the private sector that isn’t getting bailed out by the government.

Keep in mind, all of this waste comes before the actual count begins.

AP reported:

The audit, scheduled to be released next week, examined the Census Bureau’s address-canvassing operation last fall, in which 140,000 temporary workers walked block by block to update the government’s mailing lists and maps.

While the project finished ahead of schedule, Census director Robert Groves in October acknowledged the costs had ballooned $88 million higher than the original estimate of $356 million, an overrun of 25 percent. He cited faulty assumptions in the bureau’s cost estimates.

Among the waste found by investigators:

–More than 10,000 census employees were paid over $300 apiece to attend training for the massive address-canvassing effort, but they quit or were otherwise let go before they could perform any work. Cost: $3 million.

–Another 5,000 employees collected $300 for the same training, and then worked a single day or less. Cost $1.5 million.

–Twenty-three temporary census employees were paid for car mileage costs at 55 cents a mile, even though the number of miles they reported driving per hour exceeded the total number of hours they actually worked.

–Another 581 employees who spent the majority of their time driving instead of conducting field work also received full mileage reimbursements, which investigators called questionable.

No worries, though. Mr. Groves promises to do a better job controlling costs from here on out. But I didn’t read anything about requiring the cheating employees to repay the taxpayers.