Former GSA chief apologizes for "extravagant" Las Vegas conference at House hearing

Former GSA Administrator Martha Johnson takes her seat on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, April 16, 2012, to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on wasteful spending and excesses by GSA during a 2010 Las Vegas conference.

/ AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Martha Johnson, the former chief of the General Services Administration (GSA), apologized Monday for a lavish four-day Las Vegas-area conference in 2010 that cost taxpayers over $822,000, taking responsibility for what she described as a "raucous, extravagant, arrogant, self-congratulatory event that ultimately belittled federal workers."

"I personally apologize to the American people," Johnson said in her opening remarks at a House Oversight Committee hearing addressing GSA's alleged "culture of wasteful spending."

"As the head of the agency I am responsible. I deeply regret this. I will mourn for the rest of my life the loss of my appointment," she added.

GSA Inspector General Brian Miller said he's also conducting other investigations surrounding the GSA, including "all sorts of improprieties, including bribes, including possible kickbacks."

The hearing, led by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., aimed to answer "serious questions" about how the government is using Americans' tax dollars, according to the committee's website.

The 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.

Johnson resigned earlier this month and two of her deputies were fired after findings of the excessive expenditures were made public in a report by the office of the Inspector General. Johnson attended the hearing alongside GSA officials David Foley, Michael Robertson, Daniel Tangherlini and Jeff Neely.

Miller, who documented the spending, asked the Department of Justice last week to consider criminal charges against Neely, who organized the trip, according to the Washington Post. Neely was present at the hearing but invoked his Fifth Amendment constitutional privilege and declined to answer any questions directed toward him.

In the inspector general's report, Miller found that "GSA spending on conference planning was excessive, wasteful, and in some cases impermissible." The report also found that GSA incurred "impermissible and questionable miscellaneous expenses" including: mementos for attendees; purchases of clothing for GSA employees; tuxedo rentals; and $6,325 on commemorative coins "rewarding" all conference participants for their work.

Neither Johnson nor any of the other GSA officials present at the hearing defended the conference's expenditures. Johnson did suggest, however, that when she entered the GSA in 2010 it was not functioning as smoothly as it had when she had previously served on it during the Clinton administration.

"When I returned to GSA in 2010, the agency was not quite the same," Johnson said. (She left the GSA in 2001.) "A quarter of the executive positions were empty, strategy was nonexistent, major customers viewed our partnership askance, labor relationships were acrimonious and the more expensive leasing portfolio had ballooned, and more."

Johnson said that her confirmation to the GSA post had been held up by Congress for nine months, and that by the time she was finally sworn in "nearly two years had elapsed without a confirmed administrator" and "a sequence of four acting administrators had overseen the agency."

"What I did not know was that there was yet another problem. The Western Regions' Conference and economical training event... had evolved into a raucous, extravagant, arrogant, self-congratulatory event that ultimately belittled federal workers," Johnson said. "The expensive planning for that conference was well underway when I entered GSA and I was unaware of the scope. Thus I began my tenure as administrator."

Miller testified that while good news was "very difficult to find among all the bad news and repugnant conduct," the most recent proceedings confirmed that at the very least, "the oversight system worked."

[stormerF69]

When are the Tax payers going to get their money back, Sorry does not cut it they wastefully spent tax dollars need to repay them,Or jail time.Why are they not being fired,but allowed to retire and keep their pensions? We need a government that watched over our money not allows this wasteful spending of it.

[Devlyn13]

they should be made to pay back all that money why should we as taxpayers have to . I am so sick of being taxed to death like many others . enough is enough !!! Pay it all back johnson!

[stormerF69]

google,.. stop running from the truth,the 1% pay 39% of the collected taxes,the top 20% pay most of the rest while 49% only pay 1% of the taxes. Stop lying ,if you do not know the truth do some research.

[fedup12]

what a waste. But literally a drop in the bucket compared to what was wasted on lazy, wall street executives who were in the process of driving their businesses and USA into the dirt.

[stormerF69]

Fedup,..wall street bankers have paid back their loans plus interest,your koolaid is old.

[josephp5]

I'm glad Daryl Issa, who made himself the richest Congressman by parlaying his youthful car theft expertise into his Viper Car Alarm company, is all over this. After all, nobody knows a crook better than a fellow crook like Daryl Issa.

[retm-w]

Like Issa going to Las Vegas on business, yet the taxpayer paid for it.(fact finding mission LOL!)

[mryoubrian]

Solution-
$822,000 dollars of misappropriated funds divided by the numbers of employees who attended their party =______. Take that amount out of their paychecks to pay back the full amount in 6 months to the American taxpayer. Supervisors pay back 50 times an individuals amount that they are obligated for. Paid back with interest.
Then-
We will talk about civil and criminal penalties. All supervisors need to be replaced up and down the chain. Also we will talk about penalties for breaking the spending limit rules on a maximum amount for gifts of $50.00 per person. Also supervisors should be demoted BEFORE they are fired or replaced so they don't get the full amount of retirement benefits for that a person doing their job correctly get.

Lastly-
Why are we, the American taxpayers, deep in debt, paying for gifts to employees in the first place? $50.00 X 12,000 employees every year?!!!

[outragedmf]

12,000 employees with a budget of $2 6BILLION!!???@??@??# That works out to over $2 MILLION per employee!! Just what the heck is that???? She and the others who were fired had better not collect a damn pension on OUR dime after pulling some crap like this. I would really really like to see MSLSD air this budget revelation. It happened under b-ho's watch and he had better get involved. But he feels he needs to chime in on things that don't come close to the level of the presidency - sandra fluke, henry louis gates, trayvon martin. Speak to real issues that affect this government.

[bobnjersey]

[12,000 employees with a budget of $2 6BILLION!!???@??@??# That works out to over $2 MILLION per employee!! Just what the heck is that????]
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that's called a moronic calculation of what or where the budget is allocated for.

do you even know what the 'gsa' does?

[retm-w]

Why CEO's run companies into the ground and they get rewarded with golden parachutes. They cheat the investers and employees and not a thing happens to them.

[rwsmith29456]

Being sorry isn't the same as paying back.

[ikestarnes]

I wonder if execution by firing squad is a bit too harsh?

[bogey2511]

Imagine when they are running healthcare. Obama is a disaster.

[bobnjersey]

[Imagine when they are running healthcare. Obama is a disaster.]
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yes ... and when all the guns are rounded up ... and every major industry is government owned ... then we'll really be done for.

[hypnotoad72]

Especially when he takes more than notes from his opponents:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2011/10/11/how-mitt-romneys-health-care-experts-helped-design-obamacare/

[tirebiter53]

They all submitted travel claims. Make everyone of them pay it all back and then fire them and put them in prison.

[wfw3536]

One of the folks who testified said Obama administration knew about this 11 months ago. So why has it taken so long, someone was sleeping at the switch. When Obama ran in 2008 he said he was going to clean up all the waste in the government.

[hypnotoad72]

wfw3536 -

he's just one executive order away from that... of course, if he used it, he'd be called "communist" and everything else from the usual suspects...