Shame on the U.S. Census Bureau for wasting millions of taxpayer dollars even before starting its 2010 population count.

The money was paid to temporary employees who never did the work and others who overbilled for travel, based on an audit.

And while federal investigators said it was appropriate for the Census Bureau to spend $133 million on its ad campaign, including $2.5 million for Super Bowl spots, we believe that, in these hard times, the ad spending was wasteful, too.

Todd Zinser, the Commerce Department’s inspector general, is contending  the government risks wasting millions of additional dollars without tightening spending controls.

The audit, which was released last week, examined last fall’s address-canvassing operation, in which 140,000 temporary workers walked block by block to update mailing lists and maps.

Census Bureau director Robert Groves acknowledged in October the costs had ballooned $88 million, or 25 percent, over the original estimate of $356 million.
The audit showed that more than 10,000 census employees were paid more than $300 each to attend training, but they quit before they could perform any work. Another 5,000 employees collected $300 for the training, but worked a single day or less.

What’s more, seven regional offices reported mileage costs exceeding their budgets, with 23 temporary employees paid for car mileage costs for more hours than they worked.