I’m just glad they found it. I suppose the government auditor on this case is probably prohibited from reviewing KB&R invoices.
While I find Giles’s observations regarding establishing limits appropriate, I would note that there has been a movement in private industry to handle a lot of transactions in a similar fashion (with the accounting guys fighting the financial guys on the issue). Streamlining the Payables process to accept, approve, and authorize payment for every incoming invoice has been going on for at least 14 years (when I first encountered it, so it could be older). Of course, the procedures as outlined were based on electronic transactions with established and trusted vendors supported by both periodic complete audits along with unannounced spot audits.
The rationale was that large companies had too much cash tied up in accrual accounts while bills did not get paid, basically harming the purchaser by locking the cash until the accrual reserve could be reconciled with payables and harming the vendor by delaying the payment of products shipped.
I could see someone getting the bright idea to make the government “more efficient” by putting in the same methodology–while not quite remembering to install (or not being able to get some higher bureaucrat or Congress to agree to fund) the subsequent audits to make sure that the process remained honest.