AP/ September 20, 2011, 12:36 PM

$16 muffins? DOJ cited for excessive spending

WASHINGTON - Muffins: $16 apiece. Coffee: more than a dollar an ounce. Snacks: $32 per person.

A report issued Tuesday by the Justice Department's inspector general found excessive spending on food and beverages in an audit of 10 department conferences.

Justice spent about $490,000 on food and beverages at the conferences — more than 10 percent of the $4.4 million total cost of the events.

In response, the Justice Department concurred with the IG's recommendations to more closely monitor costs.

The department hosted or participated in 1,832 conferences in 2008 and 2009, costing $121 million.

The IG's report said that at a Washington, D.C., legal conference, the department spent $4,200 on 250 muffins — or more than $16 apiece.

At another conference, the department's Office on Violence Against Women spent $65 per person at a lunch for 65 people. Coffee cost more than $1 an ounce. A snack break at the same conference cost $32 per person for Cracker Jack, popcorn and candy bars.

The report says that with service charges, taxes and indirect costs, many of the meals and refreshments at the conferences the IG examined appeared to be extravagant and wasteful and exceeded department cost limits.

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Leroy1938 says:: My husband and I are absoluted appauled at the amount of money that is wasted by our government, whether local, state or national, but to speed this kind of moey on snacks is rediculious. It's time there in an audit from an outside source to determine where the money is going and to set the government on a strict budget. When we are so far in the red then this kind of spending can not keep going on, if people want snacks then stop before they get where their going and buy the snacks themselves, they make enough money to do this. If something doesn't happen soon with the budget spending then it's time to make some serious cuts and I don't mean cuts from medicare. Medicare/Social Security needs to be left alone except for adding to the benefits not taking away. The seniors are the ones always having to live on less while every day expenses seem to be going up, it's past time for a cost of living raises or you'll be seeing more people living on the streets and don't we have more than our share of homeless people. It's time for our government to get the chip off their shoulders and stop the unnecessary spending.
This is from concerned citizens of Oklahoma.; reply