Lawmakers aghast over report of lavish conference footed by taxpayers

Published April 03, 2012 | FoxNews.com

An obscure federal agency may have set a new benchmark for lavish conferences on the taxpayers' dime. 

Lawmakers are voicing outrage following a government report that found the General Services Administration held a blowout $820,000 conference near Las Vegas which grossly exceeded what the planners were allowed to spend. 

The employees dropped thousands of dollars on luxury items and convention giveaways -- including more than $6,000 on commemorative coins, $8,000 on a "yearbook," and $3,200 for an in-house mind reader. 

"It's unbelievable that red flags didn't immediately go up well before this junket," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said. 

In the wake of the report, the White House accepted the resignation of General Services Administration chief Martha Johnson. Johnson also dismissed two deputies and suspended other career employees over the affair. 

The 300-person event at the M Resort Spa and Casino in Henderson, Nev., included a $95-per-person dinner and reception as well as several violations of federal laws and policies. 

"As the agency Congress has entrusted with developing the rules followed by other federal agencies for conferences, GSA has a special responsibility to set an example, and that did not occur here," the inspector general concluded in its report. 

One of the most striking details in the report was that planners spent more than $130,000 on pre-convention activities. This included six planning events held at the conference venue. Travel expenses for these visits added up to $100,000, with another $30,000 for catering. 

To boot, planners had paid a consultant $12,000 for help in finding the location they would repeatedly visit. 

"It defies belief that the government paid for six planning trips to the luxury resort where the conference was held. But even that wasn't enough for GSA. The agency actually wasted still more funds -- some $12,000 -- to hire an organization to locate the venue for the conference,"Collins said, calling the "shenanigans" both "outrageous and unethical." 

Republicans and Democrats reacted with equal disgust. 

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http://news.yahoo.com/gsa-video-puts-gsa-issas-crosshairs-154312467--abc-news-politics.html

The plot thickens!

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