Jon Trask and Mike McAllen discus what happened at the GSA scandal in Las Vegas MResort in Las Vegas.
Links:
So since we recorded this podcast the GSA Scandal Mushroomed, Almost $1 Million in Meeting Cancellations
GSA scandal prompts limits on federal conferences
Chairman likes M Resort publicity in GSA scandal
Who was involved-
General Services Administration 2010
What-
GSA’s Public Buildings Service spent $822,000 on the biennial Western Regions Conference in Las Vegas for only 300 employees, according to an inspector general’s report.
The expenses included $147,000 for airfare and hotel lodging for six planning trips by conference organizers. That figure included $100,000 on two “scouting trips” and five off-site meetings and an additional $30,000 on catering costs for those trips, according to the report.
Among the other expenses were $3,200 for a mind reader; $6,300 on a commemorative coin set displayed in velvet boxes; and $75,000 on a training exercise to build a bicycle, according to the IG report, which was obtained by Federal Times.
GSA also promised the hotel an additional $41,480 in catering charges in exchange for the “concession” of the hotel honoring the government’s lodging limit.
The agency also spent $44 a person per breakfast and $95 per person for its closing reception dinner.
The agency also spent money on mementos for attendees, clothing for GSA employees and tuxedo rentals, according to the report.
$137,000
Travel expenses and catering costs for eight different trips that GSA staff people made to both Las Vegas and Denver, including one trip where five employees visited nine different Vegas-area hotels
$75,000
Amount spent on team-building exercises that included building bicycles (the finished bicycles were later donated to a local Boys and Girls Club)
$58,808
Cost of “audio-visual services”
$31,208
The “networking reception” included 400 pieces of $4.75 “Petit Beef Wellington,” 400 “Mini Monte Cristo Sandwiches” ($5.00 each), 1,000 sushi rolls ($7 each), and 225 units of a $16-per-person “Pasta Reception Station”
$30,208
Amount spent on cocktail reception and award dinner
$8,000
Cost of conference souvenir books and yearbooks
$6,325
The now infamous commemorative coins in velvet boxes that were given to all participants
$5,600
Amount spent on three semi-private in-room parties
$3,750
T-shirts given to conference attendees
$3,200
What the mind reader charged
$2,781.50
Water bottles for the growing “goody bag”
$2,717.09
A private hospitality-suite party on the third night of the conference
$1,840
Vests for 19 “regional ambassadors” and other employees
$400
Cost of rented tuxes for three officials
$44
Cost per attendee for daily breakfast
Where-
MResort Las Vegas
When- 2010
Fall out-
“When the White House was informed of the inspector general’s findings, we acted quickly to determine who was responsible for such a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars. The president was informed before his trip to South Korea, and he was outraged by the excessive spending, questionable dealings with contractors, and disregard for taxpayer dollars,” Lew said.
The General Services Administration’s top official abruptly resigned and her top deputies were fired or put on administrative leave Monday amid a breaking scandal that the White House chief of staff called “a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars.”
Jack Lew, White House chief of staff, said in a statement that the administration acted quickly to discipline those responsible for the scandal.
GSA Administrator Martha Johnson said she made a “significant mis-step” when her agency squandered taxpayer dollars on its annual training conference in Las Vegas in 2010.
Bob Peck, commissioner of the agency’s Public Building Service (PBS), and Johnson advisor Stephen Leeds were also removed from their positions.