‘We gonna pawty,’ said wife of high-flying US official
Suspended government employee’s profligate ways have ex-boss in a congressional hot seat
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A US government official at the center of an election-year spending scandal kept traveling far and wide at taxpayers’ expense – long after his boss was advised a year ago of suspected abuses, according to a congressional review released on Tuesday.
The official, Jeff Neely, made four-day visits in March to Hawaii and Napa, California, just days before he was placed on leave at the General Services Administration, pending further investigation and possible criminal charges, the review showed.
In February, Neely, who refused to testify before Congress on Monday and refused to even appear on Tuesday, citing his right against selfincrimination, made a five-day trip to Atlanta and a 17-day trip to Hawaii, Guam and Saipan.
“You allowed these trips to continue?” Republican Representative Jeff Denham, who released the review, angrily asked former GSA administrator Martha Johnson, who resigned under pressure this month.
“I’m amazed,” said Denham, who accused the GSA of having a “culture of fraud, waste, corruption and coverups.” He promised that Congress would dig deeper to expose all.
Denham made the comments at the second congressional hearing in as many days that has focused on a 2010 GSA training conference for 300 workers that Neely organized in Las Vegas. The GSA manages FORMER HEAD of the General Services Administration Martha Johnson is shown testifying on Monday before a congressional hearing on ‘Addressing GSA’S Culture of Wasteful Spending.’ federal buildings and purchases government supplies.
The four-day gathering at a swank hotel cost $823,000, featured a comic, a clown and a mind reader – and has erupted into a scandal drawing Democratic and Republican fire.
With government spending a key issue in the November congressional and presidential elections, a third congressional hearing is set for Wednesday and a fourth on Thursday.
Denham’s House transportation subcommittee released a two-page paper at the hearing based on its review of the GSA’S own investigation.
Entitled, “Timeline of Investigation and Ongoing Travel Abuses,” the paper showed that Neely continued to travel even after Johnson was first advised in May 2011 about suspected fraud and abuse at the October 2010 conference.
An email described as to Neely from his wife, Deb, in preparation for the 17-day February trip, read: “Its yo birfday... we gonna pawty....” Neely’s wife accompanied him on the trip, but it was not immediately clear if Neely, as required by law, covered her expenses. Denham asked the GSA’S inspector-general to determine who paid for it.
The inspector-general’s office is reviewing Neely’s other trips. Their cost has not yet been tabulated, a congressional aide said.
The GSA’S office of inspectorgeneral on April 2 released a yearlong investigative report into the 2010 conference, concluding that numerous GSA expenses were “excessive, wasteful and in some cases impermissible.”