Reuters: Politics: U.S. procurement agency embroiled in new spending scandal

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U.S. procurement agency embroiled in new spending scandal Jul 19th 2012, 20:08 By David Lawder WASHINGTON | Thu Jul 19, 2012 4:08pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Disclosure of another lavish party thrown by the U.S. government's buildings and procurement agency on Thursday prompted fresh attacks from Republican lawmakers on wasteful spending under President Barack Obama. The General Services Administration spent at least $268,732 on a one-day performance awards ceremony in November 2010, the agency's inspector general revealed to Congress as part of an investigation. The Washington, D.C.-area party came a month after the GSA's western region held a lavish, $820,000 training conference in Las Vegas that prompted the ouster of the agency's chief earlier this year and a management shake-up. "Every time we turn around, there's another scandal involving GSA," said Representative John Mica, the Republican chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which has jurisdiction over the agency. A partial accounting of expenses from GSA inspector general Brian Miller revealed that the November 2010 gathering's expenses included $20,578 for 4,000 wooden drumsticks given to attendees as part of a "drum band exercise." Miller also notified lawmakers of $28,364 spent on 4,000 picture frames that displayed the time and temperature and were distributed at the conference. Another $7,697 was spent on a "commissioner's reception" for 200 attendees who were serenaded by a violinist and a guitarist as they consumed beverages, hors d'oeuvres and pastries. The agency, which manages government buildings and procures everything from printing supplies to washroom soap, showed that 49 attendees racked up $48,735 in travel expenses. Mica and the panel's public buildings subcommittee chairman, Jeff Denham, said additional details on the expenses were scarce because they had been notified of the matter earlier on Thursday. They vowed to hold a hearing on the expenditures within two weeks. "This is no longer just a regional issue, this is an issue within all of the culture of GSA," said Denham, a Republican. "We want to find out how far that goes out into government and how high it goes." The incident, however, was brought to the inspector general's attention by the GSA's new acting administrator, Dan Tangherlini, who was assigned to shake up the agency in April after the Las Vegas conference scandal broke. A GSA spokesperson was not immediately available for comment, but some Democratic lawmakers took comfort in the GSA chief blowing the whistle on his own agency. "Acting GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini should be commended for referring this violation of the public trust to the inspector general, and committee Democrats are asking for a detailed accounting of this matter," said Nick Rahall, the top Democrat on the transportation committee. (Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by Stacey Joyce) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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