Bob Schaffer: “one other example that we investigated in the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations was a theft ring involving…”

“one other example that we investigated in the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations was a theft ring involving collaboration between outside contractors and the Department of Education employees who operated this theft ring for at least 3 years, starting in 1997; and we finally caught it almost in 2000. They stole more than $300,000 worth of electronic equipment. They stole computers. They stole television sets. They stole VCRs. They stole phone equipment. They stole all kinds of electronic computer equipment and so on. And they also collected more than $600,000 in false overtime claims. So we had people in the Department of Education who were signing these work vouchers for some pseudo contractors outside of the Department of Education so that they were getting paid for work that they did not do. Except in one case, in this particular example, the manager in the Department of Education actually sent an employee out to go out to Maryland to pick up crabcakes and bill that to the taxpayers of America. It is just mind boggling. Here is how it worked: The Department of Education employee charged with overseeing these outside contractors would order equipment through the contractor and these were funds that were paid for, equipment that was paid for by the Department of Education, and they would have it delivered by a complicit contract employee, she had it delivered to her house and to her friends' houses.”