At least 77 General Service Administration employee conferences that totaled more than $6.7 million in costs are under review by the agency’s inspector general, according to published reports.
The news came at a hearing before a House panel on Wednesday. Keep reading →
GSA Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini announced this afternoon that the General Services Administration is instituting a hiring freeze and cutting senior executive performance awards this year by 85%.
The announcement reflected what Tangherlini described in a blog post as a comprehensive, top to bottom review of all agency operations, following the disclosure of abusive travel spending patterns that led to the resignation of former GSA Administrator Martha Johnson and the departure of several GSA executives. Keep reading →
The General Services Administration’s Inspector General testified Tuesday that he has referred allegations of fraud and corruption to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution in the agency’s $823,000 Las Vegas conference scandal. And a clearly outraged subcommittee chairman threatened to disband the GSA altogether.
While declining to elaborate, GSA IG Brian Miller, told a House Transportation subcommittee that he did “send a referral” to the DOJ, which is administrative language for calling on the Justice Department to investigate whether any of the fraud and corruption charges uncovered in his report merit criminal charges. Keep reading →
The first congressional hearing into the GSA’s Las Vegas conference scandal revealed investigations into possible bribes and kickbacks and that the agency is forcing two employees to pay the government for private parties they held. And, as Monday’s hearing began, GSA employees were informed that all non-essential travel was suspended.
GSA officials testified at the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform in the first of four hearings this week on Capitol Hill into the scandal over the $823,000 four-day retreat for 300 employees in 2010. Keep reading →
General Services Administration officials used the pretense of fake awards programs as a way around federal travel expense rules in order to hold dinner events at taxpayers’ expense, according to a report today by Roll Call, citing an interview transcript it had obtained.
The transcript of the interviews, conducted by GSA’s Office of Inspector General, show that the problem of abusive spending practices may run deeper than first reported when GSA’s inspector general released a critical April 2 report that the agency spent almost $823,000 on an October 2010 Las Vegas conference for about 300 people. Keep reading →
Another in a string of top officials at the General Services Administration was placed on administrative leave Monday, four days after a video that features him joking about the lavish spending at a Las Vegas conference became public.
David Foley, deputy commissioner of the agency’s Public Buildings Service, was placed on leave pending disciplinary review for his conduct at the Western Regions Conference in 2010, the Washington Post reported. Foley appears prominently in the six-minute video clip (pictured right in screen shot above) released last week, which won top prize in a talent contest among employees who attended the four-day event in October 2010. Foley rewarded the employee who stars in the video, 28-year-old Hank Terlaje (pictured left in screen shot above). Terlaje raps in sunglasses about the government tab – $823,000 – to entertain 300 employees at the luxury M Resort Spa Casino. He brags that he will “never be under investigation” for the excess. Keep reading →
GSA staffers who went on a posh Las Vegas retreat paid for by the federal government produced a video about their exploits that has made its way onto YouTube.
The video showed a staffer in a parody about their four-day extravaganza that cost $823,000 and is now the subject of a congressional probe. Among the lyrics: Keep reading →
The General Services Administration went “over-the-top” in spending $820,000 on a training conference in Las Vegas, the IG said. And GSA Administrator Martha Johnson took the fall Monday over the lavish event that included expensive dinners, fancy entertainment and elaborate receptions.
Johnson resigned after the inspector general concluded in a report that her agency improperly paid for a training session that featured a mind reader, bicycle giveaways, lots of expensive meals, hiring outside conference planners and an after-hour reception that cost $31,000, not to mention six trips to the site by GSA officials to plan the event, costing nearly $150,000. Keep reading →
The General Services Administration’s decision to abandon a 50-year old conference franchise, known as IRMCO, in favor of a new one-day symposium dedicated to advancing acquisition, proved to be a winning move for GSA Thursday and a step forward for the acquisition community.
The new forum may have done more to reveal than relieve the strains that exist between federal acquisition specialists and those they buy for and from. But it did succeed in bringing together many of the government’s top acquisition and technology officials–and more than 600 government and industry executives–to focus on ways to improve how the federal government buys technology. Keep reading →
The move toward federal telework depends upon federal managers supporting the effort as well as find innovation solutions to problems that come up along the way.
That’s what Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry reportedly told the audience at the Federal Managers Association’s 74th National Convention & Management Training Seminar in Arlington, Va. this week. According to Federal Computer Week, his keynote address emphasized the importance of managers’ role to spearhead and steer the workforce times evolve. Keep reading →