The stories continue to flow out of the General Services Administration about questionable spending of taxpayer dollars, adding even more momentum to hearings by two House committees that start next week on big spending by the GSA.
The House Transportation Committee reported that several GSA officials went to Hawaii for a one hour ribbon cutting ceremony - but stayed there for five to seven days on the taxpayer's tab.
"The Las Vegas conference was the tip of the iceberg," said Rep. John Mica (R-FL), who said "every new example demonstrates the mind-boggling culture of waste and blatant disregard for the taxpayers’ money within GSA."
Here is the transcript from the GSA Inspector General (IG), the internal watchdog of that agency:
GSA employee: ... And it was just one of those trips where, I think [redacted] left on a Saturday and returned on a Friday, you know, give or take a day here or a day there for a one-hour ribbon cutting ceremony on a lease space.
IG’s office: That was the official reason?
GSA employee: That was the official reason, yeah.
GSA employee: You know, I just -- I heard stories, you know, going snorkeling in the morning and things like that...
IG’s office: Okay. Now this last trip where five GS-15s flew over with [redacted] for this lease property ribbon-cutting for the FBI office, five to seven days, five 15s.
GSA employee: Oh, yeah, yeah, seven, yeah, five to seven. Yeah, I don’t know what the other people’s calendar’s looked like.
IG’s office: And they were I’m sure working hard the whole time.
GSA employee: I doubt it.
IG’s office: How often do those happen?
GSA employee: The Hawaii things probably, it seems like they’re fairly frequent. I mean, [redacted]’s got another one schedule [sic] for October.
IG’s office: Okay.
GSA employee: And [redacted]’s going to be there for like ten days. It’s a ribbon-cutting for the Hilo federal building, which is about -- it’s an old post office and courthouse maybe.
Meanwhile the Associated Press reported that the House Oversight Committee was zeroing in on another part of the GSA IG probe, dealing with how the feds picked up the moving costs of various GSA employees.
In one case, the tab was almost $330,000 to move one GSA worker from Denver to Hawaii.
That worker evidently quit the federal government after a year in Hawaii.
Evidently the benefits of moving on Uncle Sam's tab included time to look for a new place to live, 90 days for a temporary residence, paying the closing costs of the home purchased by the GSA worker - with the option of buying the old house if the worker can't sell it.
Here was the transcript offered up by the AP:
"I mean it's outrageous," the employee said in the interview.
Q. In the past two years how much do you think you've seen spent.
A. Oh, millions.
Q. And how many employees are we talking about.
A. I'd say, right now, probably about 15 files on my desk.
Hearings are already set for next Monday and Tuesday.
One can only assume that more will leak out along the way.
