During the hullaballoo around the government shutdown, the Washington Examiner published a jaw-dropping series of stories about blatant waste in an obscure federal agency called the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. These stories shouldn’t be missed.

Reporter Luke Rosiak writes:

One federal employee leased a $53,000 take-home car with taxpayer money in apparent defiance of federal regulations and regularly billed the government for service at shops such as BMW of Fairfax.

Others charged the government monthly for family members’ cell phones and high-end TV packages and Internet at home — and even at second homes.

Managers freely made out checks to employees without requiring documentation of how it would be spent, giving $1,316 directly to one who said she was reimbursing herself for furniture she bought for a “home office” and using convenience checks to give workers bonuses.

Federal bureaucrats dole themselves these perqs in an agency where the median annual salary is already $120,000. Federal pay, of course, is something Chris Edwards has highlighted for a long time.

Rosiak’s stories on FMCS are worth a read. They’re worth more than that—like maybe some congressional oversight. Because internal oversight is failing.

“With three whistle-blowers gone,” he concludes, “there is little indication that the spending abuses have stopped.”