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Waste, Fraud or Abuse

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Five-Sided Spending Machine

UPDATED 21:43 PM EDT, May 21, 2013 | BY Phillip Swarts

The Pentagon is good at running the military but bad at running the logistics, human resources and technology inside one of the world's largest businesses, a government watchdog warns.

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UPDATED 23:21 PM EDT, May 15, 2013

Does Not Compute

The government has more data centers than it needs, and is trying to close 40 percent of them by 2015.  But lax oversight and record keeping has left federal officials unsure if they’re meeting the planned $3 billion in savings, a watchdog report says.

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UPDATED 6:40 AM EDT, May 15, 2013

89 charged in Medicare fraud busts in 8 cities

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 100 people, including 14 doctors and nurses, were charged for their roles in separate Medicare scams that collectively billed the taxpayer-funded program for roughly $223 million in bogus charges in a massive bust spanning eight cities, federal authorities said Tuesday.

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UPDATED 11:47 AM EDT, May 15, 2013

Highway to Waste

The federal stimulus is the program that keeps on giving -- examples of taxpayer waste, that is.

Investigators inside the Transportation Department offer the latest example of problematic Recovery Act spending from three states that misspent about $125 million in highway repair money - roughly 12 percent of the $1 billion that Pennsylvania, Florida, and Michigan received.

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UPDATED 6:43 AM EDT, May 14, 2013

Farm bill: Still a little something for everyone

WASHINGTON (AP) — There's still a little something for everyone in massive farm bills that Congress is considering this week, even though the legislation would cut billions of dollars from federal farm and food subsidies.

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UPDATED 7:22 AM EDT, May 15, 2013

Saving Money - A Foreign Language

The State Department, already blamed for lax security leading up to the Benghazi terror attack, is getting some additional uncomfortable scrutiny for the way it spent an estimated $195 million last year training its diplomats in foreign languages.

The department’s internal watchdog reported Wednesday – the same day State officials testified before Congress on last year’s tragedy in Libya – that the department is failing to spend its language training money wisely.

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UPDATED 17:37 PM EDT, May 7, 2013

Labor official blamed for Job Corps problems quits

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Labor Department official who took the blame for budgeting mistakes and cost overruns at the federal Job Corps program has resigned.

Jane Oates said in an email to employees on Monday that she is leaving her position as assistant secretary of the agency's Employment and Training Administration at the end of the month. The email, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, cites her accomplishments as assistant secretary and does not mention problems at Job Corps.

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UPDATED 6:11 AM EDT, May 13, 2013

Federal Worker Double-Dip

The downsizing of the U.S. government may not be returning all the taxpayer savings it was intended. That's because displaced federal workers are being allowed to double-dip on unemployment benefits, with some making more in jobless aid than their former salaries, a new audit has found.

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UPDATED 7:28 AM EDT, April 29, 2013

No tanks!

WASHINGTON (AP) — Built to dominate the enemy in combat, the Army's hulking Abrams tank is proving equally hard to beat in a budget battle.

Lawmakers from both parties have devoted nearly half a billion dollars in taxpayer money over the past two years to build improved versions of the 70-ton Abrams.

But senior Army officials have said repeatedly, "No thanks."

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UPDATED 7:01 AM EDT, May 6, 2013

Coming Up Empty

Everyone sat on plastic folding chairs, on a concrete floor in front of rows upon rows of empty industrial shelves.  Speakers sometimes had to pause, to keep the rumble of trucks outside from drowning out their words.

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