* Former GSA chief accepts responsibility, apologizes
* Conference organizer invokes right not to answer questions
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) – An annual federal training
conference deteriorated during the past decade from a productive
gathering into “a raucous, extravagant, arrogant,
self-congratulatory event,” an ousted U.S. government
administrator said on Monday.
Testifying at a U.S. congressional hearing, Martha Johnson,
who resigned under pressure this month as head the General
Services Administration, accepted responsibility and apologized
to the American people.
“I will mourn the rest of my life the loss of my appointment
and its role in leading a vital and important part of the
government,” said Johnson, who sought to mitigate her role by
saying she was not immediately aware of the abuses.
The hearing by the Republican-led House of Representatives
Oversight Committee examined the 2010 GSA western regional
training conference in Las Vegas for 300 workers that cost
taxpayers $823,000, featured a comic, a clown and a mind reader
and exploded this month into an election-year spending scandal.
“Wasteful spending is a problem that transcends multiple
administrations and multiple Congresses,” committee chairman
Darrell Issa said in his opening statement.
“But it’s incumbent on the present administration and the
current Congress to mandate a culture that prevents this type of
waste and mismanagement,” Issa said.
Jeff Neely, the senior government official who organized the
conference, was subpoenaed to appear at the hearing, the first
of four such proceedings on both sides of the Capitol this week.
But Neely invoked his constitutional right not to answer any
questions.
The GSA, with nearly 13,000 employees, manages federal
buildings and purchases government supplies.
The GSA’s office of inspector general this month released a
yearlong investigative report into the conference, finding a
number of concerns that drew questions and criticism about the
gathering from Republicans and Democrats.
Fallout intensified with release of a spoof video from the
conference in which a federal employee performed a rap song
about wasteful spending and jokes he will never face internal
investigation.
Issa criticized the administration for failing to expose the
wasteful spending at the conference earlier, noting top GSA
officials were informed of the inspector general’s investigation
nearly a year ago.
“Why did it take eleven months for the Obama administration
to take meaningful action?” Issa said.
“The inspector general briefed the administration with
details about the specific action of those responsible for gross
waste, yet documents show that some political appointees
believed even this year that the report could be kept private
and the outrageous details dealt with quietly,” Issa said.
“Some of those same senior political officials approved a
bonus for Jeff Neely,” Issa said.
Johnson became head of the GSA in February 2010. She was
nominated to the post by President Barack Obama and confirmed by
the Senate without opposition.
She noted in her testimony that she served with the GSA for
five years during the administration of another Democratic
president, Bill Clinton.
Johnson said during her first GSA tour, the agency had a
strong leadership team that produced value for the U.S.
government.
“When I returned to the GSA in February, 2010, the agency
was not the same,” Johnson said, adding that a quarter of the
executive positions were vacant, labor relations were
acrimonious and “strategy was non-existent.”
“What I did not know until much later was there was yet
another problem,” Johnson said.
“The western regions’ conference, which had been an
economical, straightforward set of training sessions in the late
1990s, had evolved into a raucous, extravagant, arrogant,
self-congratulatory event that ultimately belittled federal
workers,” Johnson said.
“Leaders apparently competed to show their people how much
entertainment they could provide, rather than how much
performance capability they could build,” Johnson said.
The inspector general report on the conference cited catered
parties in officials’ hotel rooms as among the many questionable
expenses.
In addition, it said $130,000 worth of scouting trips before
the conference were wasteful and cited a $75,000 contract to an
outside vendor for a team-building exercise that included the
purchase of 24 bicycles.
(Reporting By Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
