A General Services Administration official who first raised questions about overspending at a 2010 Las Vegas conference said Tuesday that she supported the findings of a government investigation and the steps taken in response to the controversy.
Among the steps taken was seeking reimbursement from GSA officials for government money spent on private parties and other personal benefits they received.
The controversy erupted last month with an inspector general's report detailing the GSA's Western Region conference in Las Vegas that cost more than $800,000, as well as an employee reward program that violated government policies.
Coming in an election year, the scandal has become a political focal point, with Republicans seeking to frame it as as a reflection of big government abuse while Democrats say the problem involved a few bad players rather than a systemic rot. This Whistleblower scandal has truely started the election year off wrong.
The Committee Chairman R-California, opened Tuesday's hearing by asserting that the inappropriate actions in the inspector general's report may go well beyond the GSA.
The purpose of this committee is to talk about the systemic problem: how deep it goes, the corruption, the fraud, the waste. It is not within the Western Region but within GSA as a whole and possibly within other agencies.
The panel's ranking Democrat of the District of Columbia, said that as bad as the problem was, the system designed to uncover such wrongdoing worked as intended, as shown by the inspector general's report and the hearing.
This is about the waste of taxpayer dollars, where we have got double-digit unemployment, the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, people out of work -- twice the national average.
At a similar hearing Monday before the House Oversight Committee, the GSA official at the center of the controversy claimed his Fifth Amendment rights against self-recrimination, while his former boss said she mourned her departure from public service over the controversy.
The General Services Administration official who organized the Las Vegas conference, repeatedly refused to answer questions Monday, saying more than five times that he respectfully declined based on his Fifth Amendment constitutional privileges.
The controversy involving a normally obscure federal agency has become politically toxic after reports and video clips of the lavish 2010 conference in Las Vegas were released. The revelation has prompted taxpayer indignation, embarrassed the administration and put a spotlight on wasteful spending by the GSA, which handles government real estate and other non-military procurement.
On Monday, the House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. asked why a former congressional aide to the President remained in his top job at the GSA when he probably knew of the wrongdoing -- or should have.
In later tough questioning of that official, GSA Chief of Staff, it was determined that a lawyer in the White House counsel's office knew of the ongoing investigation of the GSA in the middle of 2011, nine months before the earliest time acknowledged by the administration.
Committee members from both parties expressed outrage Monday over the GSA's excessive spending, contracting violations and other abuses cited by the inspector general's report.
In her opening statement, the former GSA Administrator said she found a badly managed GSA when she took over in 2010 after more than two years of interim leadership. She added that the Western Region conference at the heart of the problem had become a raucous, extravagant, arrogant, self-congratulatory event that ultimately belittled federal workers.
When she received a draft of the final inspector general's report outlining the abuses, she started thinking immediately she might have to resign.
Her final decision to step down came three or four days before the final report was released in March because she wanted to send a message to the American people that this was unacceptable, it was appalling and not the norm.
She stepped down nearly two weeks ago as the Presidential administration revealed details of the Western Region convention at a Las Vegas casino.
Videos then surfaced of a deputy commissioner of the Public Buildings Service, an arm of the GSA, appearing to mock congressional oversight. In it, he gave a talent show award to an employee whose video featured a rap about spending too much and joking about avoiding investigation.
Additional videos included one that seemed to make fun of the President, as well as a fake red carpet ceremony with a deputy GSA commissioner, boasting that his goal was to make the Las Vegas conference he helped organize over the top.
Details also emerged of an employee incentive program that violated limits on awards or gifts.
At Monday's hearing, committee members took the witnesses to task over the violations of government regulations and policies cited by the inspector general's report.
In particular, conservative Republican members repeatedly listed the excesses -- more than $6,000 for commemorative coins for conference attendees, $75,000 for a team-building exercise to construct 24 bicycles for underprivileged children, the hiring of a mind reader as entertainment -- as well as bypassing a staff event planner to pay outsiders to prepare the conference and repeated scouting visits to Las Vegas by officials and family members.
Working for the government is a sacred trust, which the GSA has blown. The hearing included several harsh exchanges.
It was within a few weeks after GSA officials were first notified by the inspector general of a problem in May that anyone at the White House was told about the investigation. It was then disclosed that the person that was informed was a deputy assistant to the president and deputy counsel to the president.
Previously, a senior administration official told CNN that the White House was notified by GSA about the final inspector general's report shortly before it was released last month, more than nine months after he told about the ongoing investigation.
It is acknowledged that over-the-top GSA spending existed during the preceding Bush administration, though figures released by Presidential officials that show a 102% increase from 2006 to 2008 are being disputed. However, information provided by staff on Monday showed the increase from 2006 to 2008 approached that figure.
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