GSA head resigns after scathing IG report

Former General Services Administration Administrator Martha N. Johnson speaks during a news conference on December 8, 2010, in Washington, D.C.

/ Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

(CBS News) WASHINGTON - Citing an Inspector General's report that "taxpayer dollars were squandered" on her watch, Martha Johnson submitted her resignation to President Obama as head of the General Services Administration. Johnson says President Obama accepted it, effective at close of business today.

The actions stem from a GSA-sponsored 4-day conference at a luxury hotel outside Las Vegas in 2010.

"GSA spending on conference planning was excessive, wasteful, and in some cases impermissible," said the I.G. report which said it cost taxpayers over $822,000 of which more than $146,000 was spent on food and beverage catering.

The report also found that GSA incurred "impermissible and questionable miscellaneous expenses" including: mementos for attendees; purchases of clothing for GSA employees; tuxedo rentals; $6,325 on commemorative coins "rewarding" all conference participants for their work.

"He was outraged by the excessive spending, questionable dealings with contractors and disregard for taxpayer dollars," White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew said of Mr. Obama's reaction to the report. Lew said the president was informed of the matter before his trip to South Korea last month.

Lew said the president called for all those responsible to be held fully accountable "given that these actions were irresponsible and entirely inconsistent with the expectations that he has set as president."

The White House says that Johnson fired two other officials with oversight of the conference and placed another on administrative leave.

It was announced that Johnson would be replaced as GSA Administrator by be Dan Tangherlini, who first served in the Treasury Department as Assistant Secretary for Management, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Performance Officer.

GSA is the federal government's principal procurement agency, acquiring office space, vehicles and supplies to facilitate government operations. It has over 12,000 employees and a budget of more than $26 billion.

[alindro]

Time to give a tip of the hat to the IG here. Considering what the Obama administration does to IGs who actually shine light on corrupt/illegal/shoddy practices, based on its past actions in a number of cases, this one has to be especially courageous.

I'll be watching to see if this individual gets kicked to the curb in the end. And, perhaps, not replaced.

[davejg77]

Johnson just considered it more stimulus spending. The clown and the comedian both told her to. The mind reader already knew what she wanted.

[fmayesjr1]

In the mid-1990s, Sec. Hazel O'Leary was upbraided by Congress for a lavish trip with many staff on what was billed as a trade mission to South Africa. She was unrepentant before Congress, but she discovered who could have the last word. DOE's flexibility with travel and travel budget continue to suffer from that incident. I have no doubt that the GSA incident will have a similar impact on GSA, if not the entire civilian Federal sector.

[sdemaggie]

BO's outraged-who appointed her.

[TJphoto]

Hello, I'm John Smith and I'm running for Congress. I have Family Values, I'm Tough on Crime, and I'll cut wasteful Spending. Vote for Me!.............Sound familiar?

[ludvig1-2009]

When I worked for the government, the federal employees were so scared of even looking like there was any impropriety that we were told to go out of our way to avoid any appearance of wasting taxpayers money. We were even told by the military officer in charge of the base, that if we drove a government vehicle to a meeting in the building that had the cafeteria and attended a meeting that broke up for lunch and was going to meet again after lunch if we wanted to eat at the cafeteria, we'd have to drive the government vehicle with government gasoline expended back to our office where we would have to get in our privately owned vehicle and then spend our gas money to go to lunch and then drive back to where the government vehicle was parked at our office and drive back to the meeting using government gasoline. Insane, It's plainly insane and it's because of all the criticism that government gets for wasting money. This could potentially cause a further wasting of taxpayer's money. We were told if we were caught in such a case driving the government vehicle to a meeting and then eating at the cafeteria, we'd get sent to the beach or whatever crazy term they used for getting canned.

[jr321]

Dittos. Part of my work is training state and local health environmentalists. I am not allowed to even purchase coffee and bottled water for breaks, much less spend thousands on meals. Good riddance to this worthless director. as stated elsewhere, this unfortunately will probably hurt other federal staff who try to arrange meetings and training frugally and stay within the rules.

[kengaard]

History repeats. It was 2008 that GSA Chief Lurita Doan resigned at the request of the last president. What gives? Oh, right. These positions go to political appointees.

[RuthlessNeoconCrooks]

We the people would expect nothing less from the District of Corruption (D.C.) Seriously, its going to take a lot more than a GAO I.G. team to reform our out of control system.

Offering up a "sacrificial lamb" (Martha Johnson) is a meaningless gesture.

[lmontgom]

Comments here suggest that most people are making many assumptions based on NO facts. How about a money trail, with names of the companies who benefited from the conference and details on their political connections/contributions? Was Johnson an innocent bystander, or did she participate in planning the conference, and did she attend? I want to know a lot more than we've seen so far before I leap to judgment. I'd appreciate others considering that approach as well.

[Brokenpcb58]

just another case of cannon fodder, shes taking one for team obama. this happened 2 years ago. he surely has heard about this before. and NOW hes shocked??? lol yeah right. he'll replace her one just has stupid.