Throwback Thursday: General Services Administration Lost Tickets Worth $7M

In 1982, the U.S. General Services Administration, the agency that administratively supports other executive agencies, lost $7 million — about $21 million in 2022 dollars — worth of forms used to buy airline tickets.

Sen. William Proxmire, a Democrat from Wisconsin, awarded the GSA his Golden Fleece Award for the agency’s utter disregard for taxpayers money.

These forms, about 49,000 of them, functioned like open-ended airline ticket vouchers, with the GSA stating that these forms “should be considered and are as good as cash” for buying flights for official government business.

The forms were ordered in 1979. A misreading or misunderstanding of how the forms were sent led to the regional office ordering 50,000 forms instead of 500 forms.

When the agency attempted to return the extra 49,000 forms to the D.C. headquarters, the D.C. office had no way to process a return and refund, and advised the regional office to destroy all extra forms.

Instead of wasting $7 million by destroying them, the region stored them in an unlocked storage room while they continued trying to sort the situation out. As time passed and employees came and went, the forms were forgotten about, until an audit rolled around. When officials tried to find them, they were gone. 

First, they said the forms were sent to another regional office, but that office denied ever receiving them. Then, they claimed the forms may have simply been thrown away.

Whatever happened to those forms, a silly bureaucratic bungle left taxpayers with a $7 million bill for forms that were never recovered.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.