"GSA chief resigns over lavish conference" April 03, 2012|Globe Staff And Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The head of the General Services Administration resigned Monday after a report concluded that her agency improperly paid for an “over-the-top’’ training session near Las Vegas that featured a mind reader, bicycle giveaways, and lavish after-hour receptions in resort suites for federal workers.
Also see:
Gulf Oil Overseer Sees Smoke From Pipe
Troubles at the TSA
Sex in the SEC
Pentagon Perverts
On Through the Night
And let us not forget the secret service agents paying for sex in Colombia.
Yup, GOVERNMENT is just ONE BIG, LONG PARTY!!!
The White House accepted Martha Johnson’s resignation after she dismissed two deputies and suspended other career employees over an $820,000 conference. The 300-person event at the M Resort Spa and Casino in Henderson, Nev., included a $95-per-person dinner and reception as well as various violations of federal laws and policies....
This as 47 million people are on food stamps and 1 in 6 Americans are going hungry.
President Obama “was outraged by the excessive spending, questionable dealings with contractors, and disregard for taxpayer dollars,’’ White House chief of staff Jack Lew said in a statement....
Whoop-de-doo!
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"Agency disregarded gift limits, panel says" Associated Press, April 07, 2012
WASHINGTON - The General Services Administration developed an employee awards program that spent more than $438,000 over three years, far exceeding the agency’s per-gift limit of $99, congressional investigators reported Friday.
Investigators for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said the “Hats Off Program’’ initially gave out items of nominal value. Over time, the awards became iPods, digital cameras, GPS devices, and other electronics. The spending was for the 2007 through 2010 budget years.
Oh, they got all the latest gizmos courtesy of taxpayers, huh?
The GSA, the real estate agency for federal buildings, said in a statement that the program has ended. “Operations have been suspended pending a continuing top down review of all spending,’’ the statement said.
The agency has been under fire from Congress after its inspector general reported this week that GSA spent $820,000 for a Las Vegas conference. The head of the agency resigned, two deputies were fired, and employees were suspended. The Transportation panel and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are starting investigations of the agency’s wasteful spending.
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Related:
"An internal government memo released Friday shows officials of the General Services Administration were aware of a spending problem months before the scandal burst into public view this month....
Yeah, this government is so up-front with you in so many ways!
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"Investigator wants criminal charges in GSA event; Cites possibility that big spending included bribes; Official takes Fifth at hearing" by Larry Margasak | Associated Press, April 17, 2012
WASHINGTON - The General Services Administration investigator who revealed a wild agency spending spree said Monday he is looking into possible bribery and kickbacks, and has already recommended criminal charges to the Justice Department.
There better be!
Inspector General Brian Miller made clear that he is not done investigating GSA current and former officials, after his lengthy report April 2 on an October 2010 Las Vegas conference that cost taxpayers $823,000.
The regional executive who hosted the Western Regions Conference, Jeffrey Neely, invoked his Fifth Amendment rights to remain silent Monday, and his chair remained empty for the rest of the hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform panel....
The GSA, which manages property and purchases goods and services for other government agencies, held its gathering at the M Resort Spa Casino in Nevada.
The conference included breakfasts for $44 a person, more than triple the $12-a-person government allowance for Las Vegas, according to the inspector general’s report.
Its outlays also included $8,130 to print yearbooks for participants and $6,325 for commemorative coins, according to the inspector general....
What could YOU HAVE DONE with THAT MONEY, American taxpayer?
GSA chief of staff Michael Robertson testified that he told a White House lawyer, Kim Harris, about the report shortly after May 2011 “when I became aware that the IG had briefed [then-GSA administrator Martha] Johnson.’’
So the White House knew, kept quiet about it, and once it became public Obama was outraged.
Pfffft!
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Committee members from both parties sometimes shouted out their outrage over the spending, raging not only about the overall figure, but also at specific taxpayer expenditures for a mind-reader, overpriced commemorative coins, bicycles for a team-building exercise, and trips by GSA employees and their family members to the Las Vegas strip.
Yeah, BIG DEAL!! We go through these rituals time and again and NOTHING CHANGES DOWN THERE!!
Lawmakers said they could not understand why Johnson, the agency head who resigned after Miller’s findings became public, waited months to take action after receiving a preliminary report almost a year earlier.
And they demanded to know why Johnson granted Neely a $9,000 bonus after learning of the conference.
“I gave that $9,000 bonus because I was focused on performance . . . ,’’ Johnson said.
(Blog editor is speechless)
Johnson, who said she resigned to allow the GSA to fix its problems under new leadership, said she was “extremely aggrieved by the gall of a handful of people to misuse federal tax dollars, twist contracting rules, and defile the great name of the General Services Administration.’’
Honestly, I AM TIRED of the DISINGENUOUSNESS!!!
She said she learned after taking office that the Western Regions Conference “had evolved into a raucous, extravagant, arrogant, self-congratulatory event.’’
And yet she DID NOTHING!
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David Foley, deputy commissioner of the Public Buildings Service, said he was sorry that he participated in an awards ceremony at the conference, which became a viral video on social media.
He's only sorry he got caught.
He made a joking reference at the ceremony to US Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, Democrat from the District of Columbia, and presented an award to a GSA staff member who made a rap video that made fun of the spending at the conference....
Insulting arrogance, but he's sorry, blah, blah, blah, blah.
What a SHIT GOVERNMENT you have, Americans!!!
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, led by Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, was the first of at least four congressional committees that have scheduled hearings this week on the GSA’s conference spending spree.
The others are the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee....
Congressional piling on so they can all look good.
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"2d panel blasts GSA over trips, parties; House committee hits agency culture" by Larry Margasak | Associated Press, April 18, 2012
WASHINGTON - General Services Administration witnesses came under sharp criticism from Congress for a second day Tuesday, as lawmakers expressed outrage over junkets, bonuses, and parties paid for by taxpayers.
Questioning ranged beyond the $823,000 paid for a Las Vegas conference in October 2010, to a culture of the nation’s government real estate agency playing fast and loose with taxpayer money.
Members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee asked about trips to the South Pacific, the Napa Valley wine country, and to Las Vegas to plan for the October conference.
“Every time we turned over a stone we found 50 more with all kinds of things crawling out,’’ Miller said.
Family members often were taken along, and in an e-mail exchange between GSA regional executive Jeffrey Neely and his wife last November, they wrote of a planned trip turning into a birthday celebration.
The 17-day trip to Hawaii, Guam, and Saipan took place in February. Neely - who was placed on administrative leave - wrote his wife: “Rough schedule per our conversation. Guess this’ll be your birthday present?’’
She responded, “Its yo birthday. . . . We gonna pawty like iz yo birthday!’’
Yup, GOVERNMENT SERVICE is LITERALLY ONE BIG PARTY!!!
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Representative Jeff Denham, Republican of California, who chaired the Transportation subcommittee hearing, summed up his frustration and that of others by telling GSA witnesses the agency suffered from “this culture of fraud, waste, corruption’’ and possibly coverups and inside deals with vendors.
“This certainly is not only a dark day for GSA but a dark day for the US government. We wonder why there is so much distrust in government,’’ he said.
Yes, the LOOTING and LYING seem to erode trust. What a shock.
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