The federal government spent $3.3 billion on new office furniture, from picnic tables in Atlanta to couches in Pakistan, as the vast majority of its employees worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, watchdog report shows obtained exclusively by The Post.
Between 2020 and 2022, federal agencies spent more than $1 billion a year on lavish décor, a rate consistent with pre-pandemic levels even though departments occupy on average just a quarter of their office space. available.
Taxpayer watchdog OpenTheBooks.com revealed furniture waste in a study released Tuesday, citing a Government Accountability Office report that found 17 of 24 federal agencies are using as little as 9% and as much as 49% of its construction capacity well into the fourth year of the pandemic.
The extravagant purchases included $237,960 in solar-powered picnic tables for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and $120,000 in plush Ethan Allen leather recliners for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.
The Environmental Protection Agency also shelled out $6.5 million on trendy furniture, even as it downsized to move into a 300,000-square-foot office space at Four Penn Central in Philadelphia.
The federal government spent $3.3 billion on office furniture while its employees worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, including $237,960 on solar-powered picnic tables for the CDC. Getty Images $237,960 was spent on solar-powered picnic tables for the Centers for Disease Control. and Prevention.EnerFusion Inc.
In one “particularly egregious example,” the group said the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation spent nearly $15 million on new furniture, or $14,400 for each of its 1,000 employees.
OpenTheBooks founder and CEO Adam Andrzejewski said the audit highlights the need for closer scrutiny of federal spending as Congress considers more government funding in the coming weeks.
“As Congress continues to fight over spending, we want to make clear that huge amounts of money are being appropriated, spent, wasted and sometimes hidden from the taxpayer,” Andrzejewski told The Post.
The State Department spent $120,000 on luxurious leather recliners for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan (above). Wikipedia. Ethan Allen spent $120,000 on luxurious leather recliners for the US Embassy in Islamabad. Ethan Allen The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency spent nearly $250,000 on high-end Herman Miller furniture. Herman Miller
“In the case of office furniture, most federal headquarters are barely a quarter full on any given workday, and no major agency is more than half full. Yet for some reason, we’ve funded another billion dollars worth of desks, chairs, couches, and more, while employees clock in from their own living rooms.”
The House and Senate passed appropriations bills to fund the government at current levels through Nov. 17 before long-term spending legislation must be considered.
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) told The Post: “Excessive spending on luxury furniture when more than half of the federal workforce was teleworking is simply symptomatic of a culture of waste that has plagued Washington, DC, for decades.”
“The ‘use it or lose it’ policy encourages unnecessary spending because agencies are penalized, rather than [of] rewarded for not spending all their year-end funds,” he added. “This is just one of many perverse incentives driving irresponsible spending in our nation’s Capitol, and it must end.”
The Environmental Protection Agency also spent $6.5 million on trendy furniture, even as it downsized to move into a 300,000-square-foot office space in Philadelphia (above).EPA
The Pentagon had the highest spending levels, with $1.2 billion in new furniture purchases, the group said.
Other agency spending levels included $428 million from the Department of Veterans Affairs, $408 million from the Department of Justice, $308 million from the General Services Administration, $302 million from the Department of State and $155 million from the Department of Homeland Security.
OpenTheBooks noted that the Defense Department’s furniture spending also remained higher than other agencies when accounting for pre-pandemic spending, with the Pentagon recording $2.1 billion in purchases between 2018 and 2022.
A Department of Veterans Affairs spokesperson told The Post: “Some VA office employees have teleworked during the pandemic, both for their safety and the safety of those we serve, but they represent a fraction of our total workforce.” .
“VA’s 465,000 public servants currently provide more care and more benefits to more veterans than ever before in our nation’s history, and we regularly purchase furniture and office supplies to support them,” the spokesperson continued.
In one “particularly egregious example,” the group said Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation spent nearly $15 million on new furniture, or $14,400 for each of its 1,000 employees. The Washington Post via Getty Images
“The vast majority of VA employees worked in-person at VA healthcare facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, mobilizing to help millions of veterans and their families during this difficult time,” he added. “All of our VA medical centers remained open during the pandemic, and thousands of VA employees worked in those centers every day to care for our nation’s veterans.”
“Now that the public health emergency is over, VA is helping to lead the federal government in getting headquarters employees back to the office,” the spokesperson also said.
“Due to the expiration of the lease, PBGC moved to a new headquarters in 2022 with a smaller footprint to reduce costs,” a Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation spokesperson told The Post. “The costs of moving the PBGC headquarters were authorized in 2017 by Congress.”
No other agency responded to a request for comment.
President Biden stressed in his 2022 State of the Union address that it was “time to get America back to work and fill our great urban centers with people,” but reports show his administration has struggled to reduce teleworking .
White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients in an August email asked all Cabinet members to “aggressively” reduce telework in their agencies this fall, Axios reported.
The Pentagon had the highest spending levels, with $1.2 billion in new furniture purchases, OpenTheBooks noted.OpenTheBooks
“We are returning to in-person work because it is critical to the well-being of our teams and will allow us to deliver better outcomes for the American people,” Zients wrote in an email to agency heads.
“As we head into the fall, and with the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, your agencies will implement increases in the amount of in-person work for your team.
“This is a priority of the president, and I hope each of you aggressively executes this change in September and October.”
Reckless spending on government furniture was also the subject of a heated exchange during last week’s Republican presidential primary debate, with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) accusing Nikki Haley of spending $52,701 on curtains for her residence from New York when she served as a United Nations ambassador in 2017 and 2018.
“You have bad information,” Haley responded to Scott. “On the curtains, do your homework, Tim, because [President Barack] Obama bought them. … They were there before I even showed up at the residence.”
An internal report last year showed that about 25% of Department of Health and Human Services employees did not work remotely during the first nine months of the pandemic and did not log into their agency’s software applications to read the email, make video calls or check work files, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
President Biden emphasized in his 2022 State of the Union address that it was “time to get America back to work and fill our great urban centers with people.” The Washington Post via Getty Images
In February, the House passed a bill requiring all agencies to return to their pre-pandemic telework policies, and three Democrats joined all but one Republican in supporting it.
Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who held a hearing earlier this year on unused federal workspace, told The Post: “The failure of agencies to properly utilize the real estate provided to them taxpayers has plagued the federal government for decades. .”
“Unacceptable telework policies implemented in the wake of the pandemic and resistance to returning to the office have turned this into a crisis,” Perry said. “Buying furniture is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to wasting unused space.
“We owe it to the taxpayers to sell this excess space for fair market value as quickly as possible.”
The measure has not yet been adopted by the Senate.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn