GSA official pleads Fifth in conference scandal
![Jeff Neely pleads the 5th at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the GSA spending scandal on April 16th. | Jay Westcott/POLITICO Jeff Neely pleads the 5th at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the GSA spending scandal on April 16th. | Jay Westcott/POLITICO](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120416232413im_/http://images.politico.com/global/2012/04/120416_neely_gsa_westcott_328.jpg)
A top General Services Administration official who was in charge of organizing a lavish Las Vegas conference that’s drawn congressional and taxpayer fire repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination Monday on Capitol Hill.
During Monday’s hearing, Jeff Neely, refused to answer several questions from House Oversight and Government Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), including rudimentary questions such as his official title at GSA and whether he was currently employed at the agency.
Continue ReadingIssa also asked Neely if he attended the Las Vegas conference, whether he approved funding for it, the size of the event’s original budget, and if he were prepared to answer any questions related to the junket that’s now become an icon of federal waste.
“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline,” Neely replied.
Issa said this was the first time that a person called to testify before his committee refused to testify.
Neely was seated in the middle of five people at the hearing connected to the spending scandal, but left the room soon after he pleaded the Fifth. The career civil servant, who could also be facing a Justice Department probe into allegations of theft and contracting violations, told investigators that he felt he didn’t need to get competitive bids because he was paying for quality, according to the Washington Post.
Before Neely left, however, Democratic and Republican lawmakers lambasted the agency official for his role planning the conference that squandered hundreds of thousands of taxpayer funds.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) ripped Neely and his wife Deb – who documents show was involved in some of the planning for the conference – for living like “agency royalty” who funded their “lavish lifestyle” at the taxpayers’ expense.
“They disregarded one of the most basic tenets of government service – it’s not your money; it’s the taxpayers’ money,” said Cummings, the top Democrat on the Oversight committee. “I want to know how we can recoup these funds, including from Mr. Neely and other GSA employees personally.”
“You know, Alexander Graham Bell has this marvelous invention called a telephone,” said Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) sarcastically. “Better yet, a videoconference … the notion that you have to spend $800,000 to exchange ideas is laughable.”
Readers' Comments (38)
Apology? no way. Mass firings and clawback of expenses from all attendees.
Cut the partisan politics and nail the guilty. Resignations and firings aren't enough. Let's see some serious prison hard time, hefty fines, and investigations into other fraud.
Our wonderful government working for us. Hah!
Raucous AND expensive....sounds like my idea of a great conference! But not on taxpayer monies next time, please.....
The biggest harm that this incident has caused is to further erode the Nation's trust in the federal workforce. Critics of the government will trot this example out for years in order to justify all variety of attacks on federal salaries and benefits. The incident is beyond shocking and deplorable. What a travesty.
Politico......please be more informational in your reporting.....be specific, dates please! This article has none and that in itself is misleading. Haste makes waste.
How much money has been spent on military contracts that have wasteful spending.....shame on everyone who views tax payer $ as their own to spend....or reinvest- like the Bank Bailout with TARP-
Every GSA department chief, administrator, Union Boss, and treasurer should go to jail for embezzling Tax payer dollars. We all know they used money to provide expensive "Green Room" party gifts for all of the major players, including themselves, which aside from stealing the money by booking penthouse rooms, limo's, open bars, and gourmet food, they would have also gotten some "special" gifts for their efforts....
And here goes the government again...instead of focusing on this obvious corruption, the government is again gearing up to make damn sure no-one lies to congress about steroids...if they actually cared about waste, fraud, and abuse they would be shifting those "Clemens hearing" lawyers "funds" to hammering these GSA morons to the wall or better yet, figure out the actual involvement of Eric Holder in regards to fast and furious. It truely bothers me that our government is more concerned about Roger Clemens alleged lie (over two years ago now) instead of figuring out how 2000 plus guns got lost to the drug cartels in mexico ultimatley leading to the death of an american agent....and countless thousands of Mexican citizens...but we MUST make sure Clemens goes to jail...that is for sure..(freaking dopes). and these jerks wonder why the country has stopped approving of and or trusting that they have our best interests in mind when conducting our "business".
OMG....I forcast (in jest starting in the Bush era) that the opulence was going down like the Fall of the Roman Empire, now the culprits in the Congress that are guilty of over abundance and bending the rules are the inquisitors. Could this be any funnier? Are we all nuts?
Ok, I'm gonna call ******** on this. She's only apologizing because she wants to be able to go get another job within the government at a future date. Everyone associated with this spending should be fired.
Couple that with members of Congress who can't seem to balance a budget, they should be fired as well. The federal government should have NEVER grown to be as large as it is.
As a side note, why are term limits good enough for the President, but not good enough for Congress?
They spent more than $800,000 for a Las Vegas conference in October 2010 for 300 employees. Are you kidding me. 300 people! This is the reason I hate big government. This white House is so out of control it makes me sick to my stomach.
They spent more than $800,000 for a Las Vegas conference in October 2010 for 300 employees. Are you kidding me. 300 people! This is the reason I hate big government. This white House is so out of control it makes me sick to my stomach. I guess Romney is our only choice to get the government down to a controllable state. Under Obama this is becoming ridiculous. What's next!
They spent more than $800,000 for a Las Vegas conference in October 2010 for 300 employees. Are you kidding me. 300 people! This is the reason I hate big government. This white House is so out of control it makes me sick to my stomach. I guess Romney is our only choice to get the government down to a controllable state. Under Obama this is becoming ridiculous. What's next!
For those of you calling for jail time, no law has been broken so don't expect that. I would say that the firings and penalties are all we can do and they are doing them. I suppose that Martha Johnson wasn't involved in the conference's organization and didn't know what was going on with it but she is in charge and needs to take the hit, too. I suppose she probably attended.
Issa, while acknowledging past administrations mistakes here, wants to put the past behind and saddle the current administration with the whole thing like they did with the Iraq war and Katrina and the Recession. Let's forget that we didn't really need to go to Iraq and that Brownie was doing a great job in Louisiana and we forgot to tell bank regulators to watch what was going on. That's just water under the bridge. It's Obama we really need to concentrate on.
She is sorry only because they got caught. With the current administration they must have been shocked that the media is even reporting this abuse. This is a perfect example of what is wrong with the government.
When I worked for the Fed Gov't from 1972 to 2004, any off site training had to be conducted in the most cost effective location based on where the participants were flying/driving in from. Also, even thought Las Vegas has one of the lowest cost of living allowances for travel (meaning cheap room and board) we could never go there because of appearances. How things have changed.
FYI.....Jeff Neeley, who is to testify this week and it has been reported he will plead the 5th, has been the GSA since 1978. This coming from several sources. These people who are in the news now, are not the first.
Who do these people think they are republican law makers?
It's about time we started to see Jail sentences. Let them think twice before stealing money. Wall Street, Government Employees, and Thieves are all the same. What's the difference between a Keyboard and a Gun? They both accomplish the same thing.
Anybody remember the Tailhook scandal in Vegas?
Nothing ever really changes with fraud, waste, and abuse by government. It isn't a party thing, it's an entitlement thing.
Yeah, we are ripping you tax mules off. What are you going to do about it?
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