We never expect much from an government agency. In fact, when it comes to the Census Bureau, we’re just hoping it’s better at counting people than it is at counting money.
Fox News tells the tale of incomparable counting incompetence:
The U.S. Census is well into conducting its constitutionally mandated 2010 count but the exercise is already running over budget.
Taxpayers are footing the bill of $14.7 billion for 10 years of Census counting. That price tag supports 500 local offices and a peak staff of 1.4 million workers.
But some cost overruns have already plagued this Census, like when tens of thousands of workers fanned out between March and July of last year to verify addresses — a process known as “address canvassing.” The Census Bureau, federal auditors later found, ran 25 percent over budget for a total cost of $444 million.
“When I arrived in July, the findings of that overrun were just emerging,” Census Director Robert Groves said. “There was an underestimation of just the workload — how many houses we had to go to.”
Auditors also found the Census Bureau provided training to some 15,000 workers who either worked not at all or less than a single day — at a total cost of $5.5 million.
It was either that or 5.5 million workers at a cost of $15,000. The Census Bureau isn’t sure which.
Source: Fox News
