April 4, 2012

A General Services Administration audit found the agency wasted taxpayer money by spending $822,751 on a training conference in Las Vegas in October 2010. Roanoke Congressman Bob Goodlatte has long been a critic of what he claims is the GSA's spendthrift habits, including the more than $50 million dollar renovation to the federal Poff building. The renovation is a stimulus project. "It has just been a nightmare of mismanagement within [the GSA] and I think there should be a broader hearing on it," Goodlatte said Tuesday afternoon in a phone interview from Shenandoah County. "You expect the government to use the soundest judgment and get the best bid for the work that's done and make the best decision about how a project is going to be undertaken," Goodlatte said, referring to the Poff building. GSA administrator Martha Johnson tendered her resignation in the wake of the Vegas audit. She also fired two of her top lieutenants and placed four "regional commissioners" on administrative leave. A GSA spokesman declined comment on my question if the regional commissioner of the mid-Atlantic region is one of those four commissioners. Virginia is in the GSA's mid-Atlantic region, according to the agency's website. The audit found GSA employees spent $130,000 just to plan the Vegas conference. The audit also faulted the GSA with spending $146,527 on food alone for the conference. http://www2.wsls.com/news/2012/apr/03/goodlatte-calls-more-congressional-hearings-gsa-sp-ar-1816274/