GSA and OPM

Remember those wonderful folks at the GSA who were merrily spending government funds (aka Taxpayer's Money) on junkets and frivolity.  There's more.  From the Washington Post:

Ninety-five high-ranking employees at the General Services Administration who are assigned to work from home racked up $750,000 in travel expenses over nine months, documents show, prompting concerns from agency officials but no action to curtail the expenses.

The travel records, provided by the agency to congressional committees, provide fresh evidence of a spending culture at GSA’s Public Buildings Service that led to an embarrassing scandal this spring over a conference off the Las Vegas strip.

And what kind of response do we have?

GSA spokesman Adam Elkington said Friday the agency is “conducting an extensive review” of its operations that includes travel policies and staff deployment.

Civil service, combined with expansionist government, brings about some of the most cancerous rot to our system.  There is no responsibility, no accountability, and minimal fear of retribution.

And, of course, it's all done with OPM.  To remind you, that OPM is what comes from the taxpayers of America.  Aka you and me.  

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin and I Own the World for the story.

It's all for show

The scandal at the GSA isn't over.  Once they get a taste for the public trough, it never stops.  From the Washington Times comes this news:

More than a month after he was put on leave when a video surfaced showing him joking about the lavish spending — $823,000 — at a taxpayer-funded General Services Administration conference in Las Vegas, a top official at the agency has quietly returned to his job.

David Foley, deputy commissioner of the GSA's Public Buildings Service, was one of the speakers at the convention who has come under sharp congressional scrutiny after an audit uncovered massive waste at the gathering, including a talent show, open bar and red-carpet party.

Introduced before his speech at the conference as a “platinum big leaguer,” Mr. Foley joked at one point with a colleague: “The hotel would like to talk to you about paying for the party that was held in the commissioner’s suite last night.”

Agency sources confirmed Tuesday that Mr. Foley had returned to the GSA after being out on administrative leave. Officials made no public announcement about Mr. Foley’s return. He was placed on leave in April, the same month he apologized in an appearance before Congress for remarks he made in Las Vegas.

First he gets paid leave, which is akin to a paid vacation, then he quietly resumes his work with no consequences.  Is there no shame left in government?

But Foley isn't the only GSA official who's still taking our money.  From Bloomberg:

Taxpayers may get the multimillionaire-dollar “retirement tab” for a former U.S. General Services Administration official who oversaw an $823,000 Las Vegas conference, a U.S. lawmaker said.

The GSA announced without elaboration yesterday that Jeff Neely no longer worked at the agency. He will probably retire with government payments of more than $100,000 a year, Representative John Mica, a Republican from Florida, said today in a statement.

Mica, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation, planned to investigate the terms of Neely’s departure, according to the statement.

The public shouldn’t have to fund multimillion-dollar deals for “government administrators who abuse their positions and snub their noses at Congress and the American people,” it said.

But what the hell, it's less than the government paid out to the Green Energy gang.

Thanks to The Lonely Conservative for the story pointers.