Re: Muffin Watch

Post #348,074 by lincoln 9/23/11 8:24:12 PM Reply	Re: Muffin Watch So did DOJ really pay $16 for muffins? Of course not. In fact, it's obvious that someone quite carefully calculated the amount they were allowed to spend and then gave the hotel a budget. The hotel agreed, but for some reason decided to divide up the charges into just a few categories instead of writing a detailed invoice for every single piece of food they provided. This is unremarkable. In fact, I'm here to tell you that this happens All. The. Time. I've been involved in what feels like a thousand conferences of this kind, and I'd be shocked if it happened any other way. Hell, I'm surprised DOJ even got that much of a breakdown. Far more commonly, your event person negotiates what kind of refreshments you'll get, and the invoice ends up looking something like this: Refreshment table (bev/morn/aft) Â 5 days....................$39,500 http://motherjones.c...ollar-muffin-myth And reading through the report (pgs 32-33)http://www.justice.g...ts/plus/a1143.pdf it takes about 5 seconds to realize where the money went. ($39,500 ÷ 5 days) ÷ 534 attendees, and not surmise that a whole more than 300 muffins were eaten that entire week. "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Post #348,086 by beepster 9/24/11 12:58:41 AM Reply	Re: Muffin Watch Bullshit. They are guessing. I'll take the auditors word before his every day, twice on Sunday. Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #348,097 by crazy 9/24/11 5:43:30 AM Reply	Bullshit back My BIL arranges conferences for a living. This is the norm. I work for a company that hold hundreds of seminars and dozens of high end multi-day conferences (filled by SEC accountants and lawyers). They might spend days negotiating the prices, but when the final bills arrive, it can have almost any breakdown as long as the items are in their major accounting areas. Muffins and steaks are the same here. We don't care how the vendor allocates the bill, as long as it isn't over the negotiated amount. And we sure don't want to see hundreds of line items for a few dollars apiece.
Post #348,117 by beepster 9/24/11 12:09:19 PM Reply	Re: Bullshit back If you can't audit from service order to invoice, you're doing it wrong. I do this for a living too. Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #348,131 by crazy 9/24/11 4:28:07 PM Reply	Wrong? No. Wrong would be paying more than the negotiated amount. Wrong would be starving the attendants. Anything in between is subject to negotiation. The guy who ordered the food is in the room when it shows up. Even if he's not, by definition someone from our company is. If it is "wrong", he'll bitch and it will be made right. Or if they can't, it will be noted an we'll negotiate a discount. But we sure as hell are not going over individual bills and bitching about the cost of the items, we have a conference to run, and the food is just fine. If everything is done for the auditors, than nothing will ever get done. Sure, they are important when dealing at the big ticket items, but there is a reason they are called bean counters. Sometimes it costs more to count the beans than to spend them.
Post #348,133 by beepster 9/24/11 4:43:07 PM Reply	Dude, yes, wrong. 1) this is government. There are rules. They must be followed. 2) If you don't build an audit path and FORCE the management to that trail, you >will< get screwed. Period. (and a very good example seems to have been found by the auditors in this case). You build the conference by putting together the orders. You end the conference by paying the bills that match those orders and/or any change orders made during the conference (all must be signed and ONLY signed by agreed upon parties..anything outside of this WILL NOT BE PAID). Yes it is a fuckload of paperwork. Thats why conference planners exist...and why anyone doing this for a living has contract terms with the hotel/conference center that state specifically how differences will be dealt with. Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.

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