G.S.A. Officials Get a Grilling Over a Trip to Las Vegas By JENNIFER STEINHAUER Published: April 16, 2012
WASHINGTON — It is a remarkable moment when Congressional Democrats and Republicans turn their scorn from each other and join forces to focus it on someone else.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Jeffrey Neely, a regional commissioner at the General Services Administration.
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But that is precisely what happened on Monday when members of both parties on a Congressional oversight committee grilled the former head and other officials from the General Services Administration over profligate spending at a conference held in Las Vegas in 2010, which included taxpayer-financed hotel suites, tuxedos and Italian wine, and an appearance by a clown.
One by one, committee members took aim like heat-seeking missiles at the witnesses, although one — Jeffrey Neely, the official who helped plan the Las Vegas event, which cost more than $800,000 — repeatedly refused to answer questions, even one confirming his job title, citing his Fifth Amendment rights. Lawmakers criticized the officials for the huge expenditures; for a bonus received by Mr. Neely, a regional commissioner at the agency, even after the event came under scrutiny; for general outrageousness; and, in one case, for the nerve of giving revelers commemorative knickknacks made in China.
The lavish spending, which came to light last month, seemed almost like a parody of taxpayers’ worst nightmare of their dollars at work: parties, glad-handing and drinking toward no apparent end. The agency’s inspector general conducted a yearlong investigation of the four-day conference, in which 300 people were flown to the M Resort Spa and Casino.
That investigation resulted in the resignation of the head of the G.S.A., Martha Johnson, as well as of Robert Peck, the chief of the Public Buildings Service, which is part of the agency, and of Ms. Johnson’s top adviser, Stephen Leeds. Mr. Neely — who Ms. Johnson said had a larger salary than she did — and others were put on leave.
In blunt testimony, Ms. Johnson described her revulsion at the findings of the investigation, which came at her request. “The Western Regions conference,” Ms. Johnson said, “which had been an economical, straightforward set of training sessions in the late 1990s, had evolved into a raucous, extravagant, arrogant, self-congratulatory event that ultimately belittled federal workers.”
The investigation found that Mr. Neely had bragged about the expenditures. Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said to Mr. Neely: “It’s not your money! It’s the taxpayers’ money!”
The G.S.A. is essentially the federal government’s landlord and manages buildings and office space. The event under investigation was the Western regional conference of the Public Buildings Service, in October 2010.
According to the report, Mr. Neely wrote of his high-flying event: “I know I’m bad, but why not enjoy it while we can? It ain’t gonna last forever.” The planning for the conference began with numerous trips to Las Vegas, also with high price tags, to test the general fabulousness of Las Vegas as a spot for a government conference. The agency will seek to recoup the money.
Lawmakers poked at everything from Mr. Neely’s bonus, which Ms. Johnson failed to explain fully, to the high cost of lunch — mini-Monte Cristo sandwiches at $5 a pop — to a $75,000 team-building exercise in which bikes were assembled and later donated to the Boys and Girls Clubs. “Giving bicycles to indigent children is a beautiful thing,” said Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina. “Lots of people do it. I just hate that you robbed yourself of the satisfaction by using other people’s money to do it.”
In the silver lining department, Inspector General Brian D. Miller, who conducted the investigation — which revealed, among other things, that some witnesses feared being “squashed like a bug” in retribution for their revelations — concluded in his testimony that “the oversight system worked.”
The other person who had a bad day was David E. Foley, a former deputy commissioner for the agency, who was criticized during the hearing for his banter in a video released by the panel that mocked the spending of taxpayer dollars. He was just doing something “similar to a comedic roast,” he said. But he added, “I realize I missed an opportunity to address nearly 300 people in my organization and stress the work we do.”
Representative Darrell Issa, the California Republican who leads the oversight committee, said the episode underscored distrust of government. “What has come to light surrounding G.S.A.’s activities should give pause to anyone who has opposed cutting government size and spending,” he said. |
