The Donald Trump administration has announced that it has shut down a little- known government agency where employees treated themselves like kings on the federal dime.
One of the latest agencies that Trump eliminated was one called the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), which had 230 corrupt employees that spent years buying themselves TVs, jewelry, expensive meals, and all sorts of vacation trips. They also used the department to give their friends and family members high paying “jobs” that required no work at all.
FMCS was supposed to be an agency that would serve as a mediator between unions and businesses in contract negotiations. This was meant to make them non-partisan in these negotiations. But the department had no oversight at all and it eventually became a slush fund for the employees, according to the Daily Wire.
The DW found that these corrupt employees bought themselves booze, meals, cell phones for personal use. Cable TV subscriptions, and newspaper and magazines subscriptions.
One employee had the government pay for a storage unit near his house where he stored his personal belongings. And he is also accused of destroying purchase records of $18,000 in jewelry that investigators think he paid for with FMCS funds.
Another used an FMCS credit card to fund the startup of a “call center” business that he never actually started — though he kept all the supposed “startup” cash.
These do-nothing employees also spent millions over time on things for their offices, including furnishings, TVs, ice makers, stereos, and office makeover services.
Another $175,000-per-year officer of FMCS listed his home as being in Iowa so that the agency would pay for his Washington D.C. apartment and all his meals and other living expenses.
Another had his actual home in Wisconsin, but had his records altered to say he lived in D.C. so that he would get a higher cost of living raise.
Then there were the millions spent on dinners, travel, hotels, and vacations.
And the whole time, no one actually did much of any “mediating” of anything and so, did not actual work.
This entire outrageous mess is the quintessential example of government waste, graft, and outright theft of tax dollars.
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