An article in The Washington Post reports, Federal employees charged millions of dollars for Internet dating, tailor-made suits, lingerie, lavish dinners and other questionable expenses to their government credit cards over a 15-month period, congressional auditors say.

Yet another source of convenience and speed in government purchasing is coming under fire due to government misuse. The sharpening tone and increased frequency of congressional criticism points to growing support for acquisition reforms imposed by Congress.

The government purchase card program has issued cards to over 300,000 government employees. Annual federal spending through the program has increased from $3 billion in 1996 to over $17 billion in 2006. Some would assert that the program is a tremendous success in speeding government purchasing and reducing costs. However, others point to the GAO report published this week entitled "Government-wide Purchase Cards: Actions Needed to Strengthen Internal Controls to Reduce Fraudulent, Improper, and Abusive Purchases" , a demand better controls.

The challenge government faces is that there seems to be a direct relationship between convenience and frequency of fraud and abuse; as one goes up so does the other. With 300,000 card holders, preventing all forms of fraud and abuse is clearly a monumental task, perhaps even impossible. Yet the proper use of these cards by the employees using them clearly provides substantial savings to the government.

Regardless, with the tone of reports like this GAO report and others like it, the tea leaves are pointing sharply to the likelihood of government acquisition reforms emerging from Congress after the Presidential elections.