Obama GSA boss fired along with 2 deputies for improper and lavish spending, employees told bosses to tone down spending but they didn't, says IG

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Details of 2010 malfeasance have been available since then but personnel were allowed to remain despite subordinates' warnings. (p. 2)

4/2/12, "GSA chief resigns amid reports of excessive spending," Washington Post, L. Rein and Joe Davidson

"The chief of the General Services Administration resigned, two of her top deputies were fired and four managers were placed on leave Monday amid reports of lavish spending at a conference off the Las Vegas Strip that featured a clown, a mind reader and a $31,208 reception.
Administrator Martha N. Johnson, in her resignation letter, acknowledged a “significant misstep” at the agency that manages real estate for the federal government. “Taxpayer dollars were squandered,” she wrote. At the start of her tenure in February 2010 she called ethics “a big issue for me.”
Public Buildings Service chief Robert A. Peck, a fixture in the Washington area real estate community on his second stint running the department, was forced out, along with Johnson’s top adviser, Stephen Leeds. Four GSA managers who organized the four-day conference in October 2010 have been placed on adminstrative leave, officials said.
The leadership collapse came hours before GSA Inspector General Brian D. Miller released a scathing report on the $823,000 training conference, held for 300 West Coast employees at the M Resort and Casino, an opulent hotel in Henderson, Nev., just south of Las Vegas. From $130,000 in travel expenses for six scouting trips to a $2,000 party in Peck’s loft suite, event planners violated federal limits on conference spending.
The episode is an embarrassment for the Obama administration at a time when the role and size of government have taken center stage in the presidential campaign. How much government should spend, and on what, will be at the heart of the election-year battles between Democrats and Republicans.
The White House, which has led a campaign against government waste, was alerted in March to the year-long investigation....

The agency “followed neither federal procurement laws nor its own policy on conference spending,” giving preference to favored contractors, for example, he wrote.

After the conference, GSA employees created an internal Web site that featured photos and videos of the conference highlights. It was not taken down until last week.
Managers ignored several warnings from employees to tone things down, the inspector general said....
The GSA also failed to follow regulations on the use of contractors for the conference, promising, for example, the hotel an additional $41,480 in catering charges in exchange for the hotel lowering its lodging cost to honor the government’s limit on room prices.
The report also found “redundant and wasteful” practices that included hiring outside event planners when the agency already had an event planning staff.
GSA spokesman Greg Mecher said the agency “is appalled’’ by the inspector general’s findings and will consider disciplinary action against other employees if it is warranted. He pledged fast changes to accounting procedures and increased oversight over conference planners and contractors....

Obama tapped Johnson to lead GSA in June 2009....

Ethics “is a big issue for me,” she said at the time, adding that “it’s right and it’s good business” to be a “responsible steward of taxpayer dollars” because “they’re trusting you with their pocketbooks.”
She once served as an executive recruiter for the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream company and most recently was a senior vice president at the Computer Sciences Corp. She served stints at the GSA and the Commerce Department during the Clinton administration."

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