I pit Jeffrey Neely of the GSA

[Lute Skywatcher]

Neely was largely responsible for an $823,000 Las Vegas conference in 2010 that was the focus of [Inspector General Brian] Miller's report. Can't even tell Congress his what his GSA title is without taking the Fifth!

[Ferret Herder]

You would too if your official job title was Monster Party Planning Dude, apparently.

[BigT]

Sorry. I don't get why everyone is so upset. I'm sorry, but that amount of money is a drop in the bucket. Show me a pattern of behavior like this, and I'll care a lot more. I mean, come on, that party cost us taxpayers $0.003 per person. Wah!

[Ferret Herder]

Blowing nearly a million dollars on a huge bash is A-OK if you only do it once?

When I worked for a state university, I would have gotten in trouble if I tried to get compensated for an alcoholic beverage or didn't have original receipts for everything, because I would have been misusing taxpayer money. I'm sure you or anyone else wouldn't have given a shit over a $5 beer at a conference, but my bosses would have, and rightly so.

The GSA bosses failed miserably here.

[Mr. Moto]

This is also a big deal because President Obama made such an example of Vegas trips as an irresponsible thing for businesses to overindulge in:

So -- so one of the things that we've said is, look, we understand that the banking system is fragile right now. And even though those folks made bad decisions, it could bring down the entire economy and affects towns like Elkhart, so we're going to do something to strengthen the banking system.

But, you know, you are not going to be able to give out these big bonuses until you pay taxpayers back. You can't get corporate jets. You can't go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime. There's got to be some accountability and some responsibility, and that's something that I intend to impose as president of the United States.

President Obama Townhall Meeting, Elkhart, IN 2/11/09

[Euphonious Polemic]

Originally Posted by BigT

Sorry. I don't get why everyone is so upset. I'm sorry, but that amount of money is a drop in the bucket. Show me a pattern of behavior like this, and I'll care a lot more. I mean, come on, that party cost us taxpayers $0.003 per person. Wah!

This is bogus reasoning. It's like a guy who has no money left over at the end of the month, and he can't understand why; after all, his daily latte only costs him $4, that's a drop in the bucket right? And his cell phone contract is only $100/month, and his health club membership is only $200, and he has lunch out every day, but that's only $10, and he pays for parking every day, but that's only $12, and he likes a drink after work, but that's only $15, and he goes out on the weekends, but that's only a couple hundred.

So where does his money go? Why is he always broke? He's not really spending anything, it's just a drop in the bucket. Drop. Drop. Drop. Drop.

What? He spent $1320 a month on non-essentials?

[tdn]

Couldn't they raise their own money for that by selling cookies?

[Lute Skywatcher]

Originally Posted by BigT

Sorry. I don't get why everyone is so upset. I'm sorry, but that amount of money is a drop in the bucket. Show me a pattern of behavior like this, and I'll care a lot more. I mean, come on, that party cost us taxpayers $0.003 per person. Wah!

Second paragraph of the article linked in the OP:

Inspector general [sic] Brian Miller, responding to a question at the hearing, said, "We do have other ongoing investigations, including all sorts of improprieties, including bribes, including possible kickbacks."

[Czarcasm]

It took a whole 5 posts before someone tried to tie it to Obama.
Somebody's slipping.

[Typo Negative]

Originally Posted by Czarcasm

It took a whole 5 posts before someone tried to tie it to Obama.
Somebody's slipping.

I don't think he was trying to tie it to Obama. He was just saying that it is all the more egregious, given our President's stated feelings on the subject.


This fella needs to be taken out to the woodshed....

[Mr. Moto]

Originally Posted by Czarcasm

It took a whole 5 posts before someone tried to tie it to Obama.
Somebody's slipping.

You realize the GSA is part of the executive branch, right?

[A Monkey With a Gun]

Fuck the SDMB gerbils. Just fuck them. I had a whole thing that was posted after Czarcasm's true to form dumb ass oversensitive comment, and the board fucking dropped the whole post. I swear I am going to go to the pound next Tuesday, pick up a stray cat, not feed it for a week, drive up to Chicago, and then drop that cat in whatever the SDMB calls an IT department. I want to see gerbil guts everywhere.

So I will make this brief. Here's the damn link. It's Jon Stewart's take on the GSA-holes. Vegas! How did the GSA blow it in Vegas on clowns and bicycles? They're in Vegas! If you are going to be corrupt, at least double down. "BICYCLE" better be a government acronym for "Japanese fuck swings" because otherwise Obama's* Secret Service needs to come up there and tell them where to find the hookers and blow.


*I like Obama, I just threw that in there to fuck with Czarcasm

[Dendarii Dame]

Originally Posted by Lute Skywatcher

[url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iqhvWxePbZiswiI3ruJS4sE8i4_Q?docId=48835ec0134a46e1b0bb3bb9056ec96f]Can't even tell Congress his what his GSA title is without taking the Fifth!

When I read that, it reminded me of Quark's brother Rom on Deep Space 9. In one episode he was shielding his brother (IIRC) and when Odo was trying to interrogate him, it took hours for him to admit that his name was Rom.

OTOH, it's likely that his lawyer told him to take the 5th on everything.

[Shodan]

Originally Posted by Mr. Moto

You realize the GSA is part of the executive branch, right?

When it comes to defending the Perfect One, Czarcasm doesn't know nothing.

Regards,
Shodan

[Dendarii Dame]

Originally Posted by BigT

Sorry. I don't get why everyone is so upset. I'm sorry, but that amount of money is a drop in the bucket. Show me a pattern of behavior like this, and I'll care a lot more. I mean, come on, that party cost us taxpayers $0.003 per person. Wah!

The problem is that it's not Neely's money. If he'd wanted to throw this huge party with his own cash, that would be one thing. But that's over $800,000 that could have done some actual good somewhere. If nothing else, it could have been applied to the deficit.

This scandal reminded me of an incident in my town. The Board of Ed spent $5000 on a painted portrait of the school superintendent. Taxpayers got very upset, and the Board's reaction was that it was just a "drop in the bucket" of the very large county education budget, which was true. However, $5000 could have paid for more library books, educational software, gym equipment, or a field trip instead. That's off the top of my head. Teachers and principals might have better ideas, but some picture that hangs in the Board of Ed offices (where no students can see it) can't possibly help them very much.

If it was part of the superintendent's compensation package, I bet he/she would rather have it in cash.

[TruCelt]

The General Services Administration is entrusted with billions of dollars of taxpayer's money each year. They are responsible for seeing that the money is spent in the best interests of the American People, and in accordance with the Federal Acquisiton Regulations (FAR). If _they_ are not clear on what is and is not allowable for reimbursement with Federal dollars, then who is? If _they_ are missappropriating funds, then who is minding the store?

I have had the experience of trying to force Program Managers both private and Government, to follow FAR requirements when a GSA Contracting Officer is clearly giving them the old nudge/wink to spend inappropriately. It is not fun. But if the GAO (Government Accounting Office) comes in to audit, they won't give a flying farina who said "OK, go ahead" They will just yank back the funds and good luck getting a refund from the Las Vegas Convention Center (or, Og forbid, some of the organizations that run Vegas hotels!)



TL: DR It's the job of the GSA to make certain that the funds with which they are entrusted are spent properly by the commercial businesses to whom they then contract the work. They are supposed to be the police!!

[Enderw24]

Approximately $6.6 billion in cash was likely stolen after being flown to Iraq during the months that followed the U.S.-led invasion, Pentagon officials said recently.

Stuart Bowen, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, told The Los Angeles Times that the sum just might be “the largest theft of funds in national history.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/1...ional-history/

This is not a tu quoque. I'm not looking to blame Bush or shift the blame away from Obama (as if it's his fault anyway). I'm not even trying to say that $800,000 isn't a huge waste of money. It is. It's ridiculous that money was blown in that fashion and I do hope there they continue to have a thorough investigation on the matter.

But can we put it in perspective? 6.6 BILLION dollars went missing. Fell off the goddamned back of a truck. Probably went to fund the very terrorists we're waging war against. Did the lone guard look the other way for a second? Did it get dropped from a blimp? Did they burn it to sate the God of Jupiter's bloodlust? What the fuck?

It's money that could have funded my local school district for literally another century and it fucking vanished like a fart in the wind. How in the hell is this not making as much news as a stupid party in Vegas?
Don't bother. I already know the answer.

[Chefguy]

This boondoggle is the tip of the iceberg, folks. It's the symptom of the deeper disease that infests the GSA, which is corruption and kickbacks. How has this come to pass? Well, a big part of it is because of the big push in the Bush years to outsource government services. This was done to supposedly save money (it doesn't) and improve efficiency (it doesn't).

What it resulted in was the hiring of campaign contributors and friends of politicians to manage an agency that controls billions of dollars, who in turn awarded lucrative management contracts to their friends, violating multiple contracting provisions in the process because they didn't believe the rules applied to them. At least two very high-ranking GSA officials have had to resign over this, and one just quit (after awarding many of these), saying that he was going to go "make some real money".

Additionally, many (probably 'most') management contracts were and are written with giant loopholes in them, allowing contractors for such mundane services such as janitorial and building maintenance to repeatedly rape the system, providing names of qualified employees in their proposals, but hiring cheap unqualified labor in the actuality. The result has been a steady deterioration of facilities that belong to the public, while the contractors make large profits.

My wife worked for GSA and quit in disgust after only five years. She was required to attend several of these supposed professional 'workshops' which were nothing more than meaningless boondoggles thinly disguised as team-building exercises in places like Reno and Las Vegas. Her bosses refused to modify contracts to prevent deceptive practices, which meant that companies were free to hire unskilled labor and unqualified staff, and to use inferior products. Outraged building tenants complained constantly about this, but how do you fire a company that is operating within the contract terms?

I worked for one of the contracted facilities maintenance companies noted above. Loopholes in the contract allowed them to hire me as their facilities manager, even though the position description called for a professional, degreed engineer. This allowed them to pay me $115K instead of $140K. My cohort, the operational manager was in the same situation. After two years, they laid both of us off and replace us with ONE person, hiring him on at about $80K. They were still able to bill for the full amount of the contract.

The abuses will probably never stop. GSA is huge and labyrinthine. The failure to responsibly manage your tax dollars continues pretty much unabated.

[Mr. Moto]

Originally Posted by Chefguy

This boondoggle is the tip of the iceberg, folks. It's the symptom of the deeper disease that infests the GSA, which is corruption and kickbacks. How has this come to pass? Well, a big part of it is because of the big push in the Bush years to outsource government services. This was done to supposedly save money (it doesn't) and improve efficiency (it doesn't).

I don't know that you can blame this solely on Bush - outsourcing grew under Clinton as well.

[Jackmannii]

Originally Posted by Enderw24

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/1...ional-history/

This is not a tu quoque.

Yes, it is.

As previously noted, the GSA is supposed to be a watchdog agency, helping government agencies run more efficiently and minimizing costs. According to its own mission statement, the GSA: "Is fueled by two powerful sparks for change, namely sustainability and transparency. The former is a doctrine for managing resources with utmost care and an obsession with “no waste.” The latter is a doctrine for inviting our collective intelligence and wisdom to our work."

According to Wikipedia, "GSA employs about 12,000 federal workers and has an annual operating budget of roughly $26.3 billion. GSA oversees $66 billion of procurement annually. It contributes to the management of about $500 billion in U.S. federal property"

So they're responsible for lots more money than ever went missing in Iraq. If there are deeper problems in the agency, it's worth paying attention to.

[Chefguy]

Originally Posted by Mr. Moto

I don't know that you can blame this solely on Bush - outsourcing grew under Clinton as well.

Absolutely. And the game has been tried even before that, with little success. The big push, however, and the subsequent implementation of most of this sop to big business, came in the early part of the first decade. Neely is only the visible part of this mess; it's much more widespread. I agree with the OP that Neely's puzzling use of the 5th amendment makes him look guilty as hell. With any luck, he'll cut a deal to avoid serious prosecution and implicate all those who need to be in prison, or at least fired.

I should point out that my wife resigned because she was not allowed to do her job according to the rules, but also according to the best business practices. In other words, she was too competent and refused to accept incompetence on any level. It made her some serious enemies in the Alaska administrative chain, and it didn't help things any that she routinely got rave reviews from her building tenants, and cash awards from the regional office in Seattle. When they ramped up the pressure on her, and hired another layer of management just for that purpose, she said fuck it. It just wasn't worth the stress.

[TruCelt]

Actually, it started as an attempt byt he Republicans to kick the knees out from under the Federal Employees' Union. The argument ws that the Union prevented the separation of ineffective employees, and so the only way to accomplish anything was to outsource to the wonderfully efficient and fast-moving private sector.

The Government then set about winding a sea of red tape around the operations of the private companies doing business for the Federal Government such that we now get things done at about the same rate as they do. The only real difference is that the majority of our omployees make much higher salaries than their Union employees collect.

[Vinyl Turnip]

Originally Posted by spooje

I don't think he was trying to tie it to Obama. He was just saying that it is all the more egregious, given our President's stated feelings on the subject.

Yes. And let's not forget how warmly the President was congratulated for his sensible stand at the time, by everyone across the political spectrum.

[Chefguy]

Originally Posted by TruCelt

Actually, it started as an attempt byt he Republicans to kick the knees out from under the Federal Employees' Union. The argument ws that the Union prevented the separation of ineffective employees, and so the only way to accomplish anything was to outsource to the wonderfully efficient and fast-moving private sector.

The Government then set about winding a sea of red tape around the operations of the private companies doing business for the Federal Government such that we now get things done at about the same rate as they do. The only real difference is that the majority of our omployees make much higher salaries than their Union employees collect.

My wife had an extremely reliable and competent facilities mechanic at one of her buildings. When this service was privatized, he was laid off, then rehired at a higher salary to do exactly the same job, but as a private contractor rather than a government employee. He still gets to collect his pension. On the union side of things, she was required to supervise an incompetent asshole who had been removed from his job in one city because of sexual harassment charges and transferred to one of her facilities, rather than being fired. Getting rid of this pile of donkey pus took over two years of documentation of poor performance and dealing with frustrating pushback from her superiors. The guy who was hired in to be another layer of supervision was somebody who was rendered superfluous in another city. Rather than just retire him or transfer him out of the state, they created an unnecessary position for him in her chain of command. Transparent, my ass.

[zookies]

Why is the waste and arrogance any surprise? Especially right now, when we have to pass the bill to know what is in it. And when any attempt at a reasonable government is called 'politics'. And anyone who disagrees is a racist.

[Gyrate]

Originally Posted by zookies

Why is the waste and arrogance any surprise? Especially right now, when we have to pass the bill to know what is in it. And when any attempt at a reasonable government is called 'politics'. And anyone who disagrees is a racist.

Ooh - could you say something about Obamacare and how paying taxes infringes on your freedom? I only need two more squares on my talking-points bingo card to win.

Back on point, sadly I've seen firsthand the same problems with contract management in the UK government. The rhetoric is that privatisation will outsource the risks while saving money for the public sector. In reality the private sector contractors take all the profits and dump the risks back on the government. And it inevitably costs more to terminate a contractor who isn't meeting the terms of the contract than to let them continue. At least in the UK the issue seems to be incompetence more than corruption.

[Evil Captor]

I see no reason why we can't investigate the hell out of the GSA AND the folks who stole ... er, "lost" that $6 billion.

[Omar Little]

The pic of Neely in the bath tub in his Vegas suite is priceless.

[TruCelt]

Originally Posted by Omar Little

The pic of Neely in the bath tub in his Vegas suite is priceless.

For those who missed it. Just wait until they find out who the other glass of wine was for!

[yeahright]

So - it costs $200K per hour to fly Airforce 1. We paid more than $4 million for Obama's Hawaii vacation..... Neely is scum, but he is nowhere near as disgusting as some abusers.....

[Punoqllads]

Originally Posted by yeahright

So - it costs $200K per hour to fly Airforce 1. We paid more than $4 million for Obama's Hawaii vacation..... Neely is scum, but he is nowhere near as disgusting as some abusers.....

Oh, spare me the outrage. George W. Bush made 77 trips to Crawford Ranch, spending "all or part of 490 days" there.

[Drum God]

Originally Posted by yeahright

So - it costs $200K per hour to fly Airforce 1. We paid more than $4 million for Obama's Hawaii vacation..... Neely is scum, but he is nowhere near as disgusting as some abusers.....

That is utter bullshit. We did not "pay for Obama's Hawaii vacation". We paid for the relocation of the Office of the President to a location where the President actually was. Is the guy supposed to be a prisoner? He is either a prisoner or he can travel as he desires (within reason). Which one is it? And what sort of quality applicants do you expect to get for the job if the recipient has to become a prisoner?