We here at the Oink Report sometimes wonder if our day-in, day-out exposure of government corruption and waste doesn’t sometimes get a little depressing for our readers. Especially around tax time as we all contemplate what much of this waste and corruption is costing us.

So it does give us pleasure this tax day to show you that there are actually some good guys in Government who are trying to make things better, even if at times it all feels a little futile.

A new report shows the government’s inspectors general are producing better results, even as critics complain staffing and budgets at many IG offices fall short.

The report from the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency, an interagency inspectors general group, reported that IGs in fiscal 2007 produced more than $16 billion in savings through audits and investigations that uncovered waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement in government programs and operations. Those investigations led to almost 9,000 successful prosecutions. Both statistics were increases over the 2006 figures.

Of course, this isn’t all good news. We don’t mean to send you out on a downer, but consider that while these inspectors and auditors are exposing waste and saving us money they themselves - along with their audits and investigations - are costing us tax dollars.

Hopefully they didn’t cost us more than the $16 billion they saved.

Your daily dose of government waste news:

• Defense firm forged close ties to Congress to get no-bid contracts
• Texas Congressmen request earmark money for out of state—and even of the country—pet projects
• Virginia town stopped from using federal funds to reimburse itself for cost of payment of a loan for “a high-end downtown hotel and restaurant complex”
• $500,000 Congressional earmark for a pedestrian underpass at a Vermont town’s intersections intended to provide “the essential link to shopping centers and restaurants, according to town officials”
• The $33 million bike path in Louisiana; $1 million earmark pays for latest extension and $125,000 federal grant pays to study the next extension
• “Tug of war” between federal agency and the local politicians over earmark continues

As a government raid on a polygamist sect accused of child abuse makes headlines around the country, one facet of the story that doesn’t seem to be making a lot of headlines is the fact that the sect itself was the recipient of a couple of million dollars of government pork:

FT. WORTH, Tex. — American taxpayers have unwittingly helped finance a polygamist sect that is now the focus of a massive child abuse investigation in West Texas, with a business tied to the group receiving a nearly $1 million loan from the federal government and $1.2 million in military contracts.

The ability of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS, to operate and grow is largely dependent on huge contributions from its members and revenue from the businesses they control, according to a former accountant for the church, and government officials in Utah and Arizona, where the sect is primarily based.

One of those businesses, NewEra Manufacturing in Las Vegas, has been awarded more than $1.2 million in federal government contracts, with most of the money coming in recent years from the Defense Department for wheel and brake components for military aircraft.

A large portion of the awards were preferential no-bid or ‘’sole source” contracts because of the company’s classification as a small business, according to online databases that track federal government appropriations.

NewEra, previously known as Western Precision Inc. and located in Hildale, Utah, also received a $900,000 loan in 2005 from the federal Small Business Administration, the data show.

The president and chief executive of the company is John. C. Wayman, identified as an FLDS leader and a close associate to Warren Jeffs, the sect’s ”prophet,” who was convicted last year as an accomplice to rape for arranging the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin.

Wayman did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Apparently the sect is being accused of not only child abuse, but also forcing sect members to work as what can only be called slaves.  Not exactly an appetizing use for our tax dollars.

One also wonders how a business which gets multi-million dollar contracts can be classified as a “small business.”

This story is a little more local than most of our pork reports, but it still warrants a heads up.

Maggie Thurber has discovered an amazing abuse of tax dollars in the City of Toledo. Apparently,Toledo is gearing up to spend a whopping $600,000 to open several pool locations.

As Maggie points out, the City is taking the nanny state approach by deciding the costs are not relevant when it comes to providing comfort for citizens.

Kattie Bond, director of Toledo’s department of neighborhoods, said the benefit of operating city pools outweighs the cost.

“It is important to provide recreational opportunities for citizens,” Ms. Bond said. “We live in a city where we do get hot weather, so it’s important we provide a place for kids to at least get wet and cool off.”

Maggie also tosses in some pretty convincing numbers that lead to the conclusion this $600,000 project will only serve less than 2% of the population.

Last year, the pools served 25,151 entrants. The city did not keep track of how many of those ‘entrants’ were the same individual. They also charged $1 for entry.

In 2007, there were six pools open (one was a splash pad) compared to the 12 facilities opened in 2006. Despite the increased attendance at two of the pools, overall attendance at the six facilities declined 18.5% from 30,841 to 25,151. This clearly indicates that individuals who had access to a pool in 2006 did not travel to other locations in 2007 in order to “get wet and cool off.” (I just can’t imagine how they survived!)

As these numbers are visits and not visitors, it’s hard to estimate just how important this cost is to the general public. For sake of argument, let’s estimate that individuals likely to use the pool facilities will do so five times during the season. This seems a reasonable estimate considering the number of days the pools are open.

Using this assumption, the pools had about 5,000 unique visitors. The 2006 Census data shows that there are 74,896 children (under 18 years of age) in Toledo. Even if every visitor to the pools was a child, we would be serving less than 7% of the kids in the city. If we consider total population, those estimated 5,000 unique visitors represent less than 2% of the population.

Lovely, isn’t it?

Finding a politician who will make solid efforts to expose pork is hard work these days, but every once in a while we find ourselves surprised. In this case, it’s the Washington Waste of the Day blog set up by Senator Tom Coburn.

We’ll be adding this great pork report to our sidebar today, and we highly recommend you bookmark the blog and watch for updates.

Your daily dose or irresponsible government news:

• Sons of Congressman employed by companies that have received millions of dollars in earmarks from the Congressman
• Despite a new “cooling-off” ethics rule, Congressman who become lobbyists may begin immediately advising clients and can play a key role in lobbying efforts, says Ethics Committee
• Facing an increase in gun violence, California police department plans to use funding from a federal earmark to launch a mural campaign for the city’s talented graffiti artists
• Kentucky lawmakers cut funding for education while spending hundreds of millions of dollars on pork projects, including ballparks, football equipment and museums

We Oink Reporters understand the desire for things.  We are gadgetheads, are always lusting after the latest and greatest in personal electronics, and feel the same way about the iPhone as Tom Cruise felt about Rene Zellweger in Jerry McGuire.

It would complete us.

But despite our rampant materialism, we have always felt that one should fund his/her things budget with personal money.  Not money purloined from taxpayers.

 Federal employees used government credit cards to pay for lingerie, gambling, iPods, Internet dating services, and a $13,000 steak-and-liquor dinner, according to a new audit from the Government Accountability Office, which found widespread abuses in a purchasing program meant to improve bureaucratic efficiency.

The study, released by Senate lawmakers yesterday, found that nearly half the “purchase card” transactions it examined were improper, either because they were not authorized correctly or because they did not meet requirements for the cards’ use. The overall rate of problems “is unacceptably high,” the audit found.

Just to make sure you all got that straight, these purchase cards were meant to make government more efficient.  What they accomplished was facilitating a government bureaucrat spending spree so eggregious it defies belief.

I mean, panties?  A $13,000 steak dinner?  How did these people not expect to get caught?

Apparently some 300,000 government employees used these purchase cards.  With 50%  of those transactions being inappropriate, or at least inappropriately authorized, you’d expect there to be a bloodbath of firings and embezzlement indictments.  That’s what would happen in the pricate sector.

But it’s the government, so instead I’m sure a few scapegoats will be sacrificed and then we’ll spend millions on some new purchasing program that will eventually be abused as bad as this one.

Your daily dose of wasteful government spending news.

• Travels costs increasing but government bureaucrats have no plans to reduce taxpayer funded trips
• $147,000 earmark for Maine town for a waterfront boardwalk and park
• $229,000 earmark pays for sand on Florida beach
• Florida beachfront property owners look to Air Force to pick up the tab for adding sand to local beach

When we think of Christmas typically we think back to when we were little fiscal conservatives waiting anxiously on Christmas Eve for when we’d finally get our hands on all the loot.  What we don’t like to think about is greedy politicians waiting for politicians in Washington DC to dole out loot in the form of our tax dollars.

Havelock [North Carolina] hand-delivered its wish list to Washington last week in hopes that legislators will be the city’s Santa Claus.

“It’s sort of like waiting for Christmas,” said Mayor Jimmy Sanders. “You don’t know what you’re going to get.”

Call us crazy, but we don’t think anyone in this country should be thinking of the federal government in terms of Santa Claus. And we do actually think it’d be best if local officials did know what they’re going to get from the federal government if they’re to get anything at all.

That’s what transparent, responsible government spending is all about. Sadly, we have far too many jokers in this country like Mayor Jimmy who think that these federal dollars come from some red-suited magical old elf instead of hard-working men and women who would be better off with more of those dollars in their pockets.

Your daily dose of government waste-related news.

• Veterans Affairs employees last year racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in government credit-card bills at casino and luxury hotels, movie theaters and high-end retailers
• Illinois town hungry for pork publicly battles area Congressman and his staff; Congressman and his staff claim they secured funding but local officials call it “make-believe money”
• Senate Majority Leader will block Senators from amending bill that expands the size and cost of lands owned by the federal government
• Another beach receiving sand paid for with a Congressional earmark; “We are always happy when a dredge comes to town,” says charter boat captain
• Congress’ king of pork spend billions on pet pork projects and steers millions of dollars to campaign contributors
• National Unclaimed Property Database’s Website advertises more than $35 billion in unclaimed money and properties, held by the federal and state governments and other entities