WASHINGTON, March 27 (UPI) -- Sales of e-passports have earned the U.S. Government Printing Office nearly $100 million since January 2007 and questions about spending for trips and bonuses.
Investigators reportedly are looking into bonuses paid to 25 employees, trips to conferences that cost as much as $15,000 for one employee and $10,000 spent on a portrait photograph of Public Printer Robert C. Tapella, The Washington Times said Thursday.
Government Printing Office spokesman Gary Somerset said the switch to bonuses based on "goal-based performance" began five years ago. The perks are part of a plan the office adopted in 2005 to increase revenues, the newspaper reported.
Former GPO general council Gregory Brower made the legal decision that allowed the office to more than double the price of electronic passports sold to the U.S. State Department, the report said.
He reportedly received a bonus of $7,500. Bonuses have ranged from $2,000 to nearly $13,000, the Times said. Investigators are concerned the profit-oriented practices are improper for a public printing office that has a monopoly on federal government business.
"It translates into higher costs for customers and for the American taxpayer," one investigator told the Times.
