Photo by Triborough

There’s never really a shortage of stories on how government can misspend everyone’s money, sadly. Today The Washington Times adds to that list with this story:

Nearly $70,000 worth of brand-new shirts ordered by the District’s fire department have gone unused because they are adorned with the wrong emblem, fire officials testified Wednesday.

The 1,750 National Fire Protection Association-compliant polo-style shirts were ordered in October 2010, according to a purchase order obtained by The Washington Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The shirts, which were $39 apiece according to the purchase order, were delivered early last year. But because they are polo-style, which Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbe has said can no longer be worn as part of the uniform, and because they are embroidered with an old emblem that the District’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department no longer uses, the shirts have sat boxed in a warehouse, fire officials admitted.

Thankfully, the D.C. Inspector General is looking into the purchase, which was authorized by former Fire Chief Dennis Rubin, but unless these things are put on eBay for sale, there seems to a slim chance that the city could get its money back. (“We’re going to look at ways we can utilize the shirts if we can’t recoup the cost of them,” said Chief Kenneth Ellerbe yesterday.)

The issue of the shirts ties into a controversial rebranding that firefighters have been stridently opposed to. Under Ellerbe, the standard “DCFD” is gone, replaced with “DCFEMS.” He says it’s a means to better merge and recognize the joint operations of D.C. firefighters and emergency workers.

According to the Examiner, though, that the shirts are simply sitting in storage isn’t an issue of style or wasted money—it’s also an issue of safety. Union officials say the shirts could have been worn to protect the firefighters from burns as they battled flames.