Ex-GSA head apologizes for $823,000 Las Vegas spending spree

[The Northerner]

Martha Johnson, who resigned this month as head of the General Services Administration, apologized on Monday for a Las Vegas conference in 2010 that cost $823,000 and led to the ouster of the agency's top leaders.

Johnson resigned; two top officials — Bob Peck, head of the agency's public building department, and Stephen Leeds, Johnson's chief of staff — were fired; and five other officials were put on administrative leave after GSA Inspector General Brian Miller reported that lavish spending was an accepted part of the agency's culture. He highlighted the 2010 conference, which included private parties in luxury suites paid for with taxpayer funds.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was holding the first of what's expected to be at least four congressional hearings into the report. The official at the center of the scandal, Jeffrey Neely, repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.

The official at the center of the scandal, Jeffrey Neely, repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.

Read more: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/16/11228993-ex-gsa-head-apologizes-for-823000-las-vegas-spending-spree

[blm]

1. This is what happens when govt agency conferences emulate private sector conferences as they

did since Bush's term. Obama WH should have noted and put an end to the extravagances of the Bush administration, not continued them.

[Submariner]

2. I sent Lisa Myers of NBC/MSNBC congratulations for this mornings hatchet job

and extensive reporting of this case on TeeVee.

I stated I only wished she showed that much enthusiasm when NBC was in the tank for the Bush/Cheney regime when that pallet of $9 billion in cash went missing in Iraq, never mind the hundreds of billions wasted in overcharging by war profiteering contractors.

I suggested she look into huge purchases by crooked outfits like Halliburton/KBR and Blackwater Security. How many land parcels, mini-mansions and yachts, etc. did that pallet of cash turn into in the U.S., or elsewhere? The order-of-magnitude of government cash gone wasted, between $850 thousand and $9 billion, at least warrants a look see.

I doubt I will hear back.