Not the Comfy chair! Anything but that!
Posted on 05/30/2012 8:24:18 AM PDT by mandaladon
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.
“I attempted to make a joke in the context of a talent celebration that I perceived as being similar to a comedic roast,” Mr. Foley told a House committee investigating the GSA gathering.
He also said he wasn’t directly involved in planning for the conference or in any financial or contracting irregularities that surfaced after the GSA’s inspector general issued a report on the gathering this year.
Still, Mr. Foley and other GSA executives and employees from Washington who attended the agency’s Western Regions Conference would have been hard-pressed to miss clear signs of what one organizer boasted to be “over the top” spending.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
You think he would be hiding under a rock somewhere
Thanks mandaladon.
The "joke gone bad" defense.
“You think he would be hiding under a rock somewhere...”
that he isn’t is indeed our fault...
Just how stupid does the government think its citizens are?
Don’t answer, I already know.
What a huge job we have before us to get these grafters and grifters out of the Federal agencies! they are robbing us blind.
oh, come on now, he has learned his lesson and if he does it again we shall use the comfy chair upon him!
Stupidity?!!
they’re basically daring We the People to do something about it!!
“they’re basically daring We the People to do something about it!!”
That was King George’s attitude. Hmmmn ....
He got a one month paid vacation, after his Las vegas vacation and now is back to work!
Bottom line, he got paid vacations; we got screwed,
Not the Comfy chair! Anything but that!
One of the hundreds of snapshots posted on an internal GSA website of the $823,000, four-day affair in Las Vegas in 2010.
GSA official Jeff Neely photos posted on Google Plus by his wife Deborah enjoying Wine and Soak in Spa Tub at posh Hotel During one of several tax-paid "Pre-Conference" Meetings. Apr 16, 2012. The eight pre-conference trips alone cost the government $130,000, according to the GSA investigation.
Neely also traveled to several other luxury resorts and to Hawaii. About 115 expensive IPads--- listed as "prizes" for the LV conference are missing---one was traced to Neeley's daughter who apparently does not work for the GSA. Inspector General Brian Miller has referred this case to the DOJ for possible criminal investigation.
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Notice how practiced they are at govt fraud....indicating this was done over and over. Probably there is an internal Govt Fraud Network with all of 'em colluding in ways to bilk the taxpayers?
ITEM Martha Johnson was forced to resign as GSA chief---she apparently had millions of tax dollars just laying around---so she spent an incredible $820,000 for the conference. Among the expenditures she okayed: $31,000 for a "networking reception," $146,000 for catered food and drinks, as well as $130,000 in expenses to "scout" the conference's hotel location.
ITEM Apparently, Johnson's advance team had to travel to Vegas six times to get a handle on where best to discuss GSA business and eat $4 a piece shrimp at a "cocktail party." Cheese trays at the LV party cost $19 per person, and the sushi station, another $7,000. After all that partying, the govt employees who were still hungry the next morning, got breakfast for $44 per person.
ITEM One fired official "knew nothing." He testified to Congress that he didn't know taxpayers would be billed $1,960 for a party in his luxury suite at the posh Las Vegas resort.
ITEM Robert Peck said he had paid for some food out of his own pocket and was "surprised" when additional food arrived - eventually paid for by taxpayers. "Know Nothing Peck" ended up handing out at least one $9000 bonus (that we know of) to one of the fraudsters...."for services rendered."
Notice the clever wording on Jeff Neely “leaving the GSA”.
He is not fired, quitting or retiring. He is going elsewhere. So for all we know, he is just moving over to another government job in another department, probably with the same salary and benefits.
They can’t be fired...
When it comes to government employees, there’s plenty of news about laid off social workers in Florida, furloughed forest rangers in Minnesota, and underpaid teachers everywhere else. Yet even during these hard times, there are thousands of government employees who still earn great, big salaries – many of them hundreds of thousands more than the $400,000 Obama pulls down each year.
In 2009, 347 Texas state employees earned more than the president; 53 of them made more than $600,000. In New York, 35 employees were paid over $400k last year.
Since 2005, the number of Federal employees earning $150,000 plus has jumped tenfold: going from 12,399 to 171,689. Much of the increase has been in medicine. Doctors at veterans hospitals and prisons averaged $179,500 in 2010, up from $111,000 in 2005.
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See slideshow on 10 insanely overpaid government employees. We reported all their yearly earnings, which in addition to base salary, includes bonuses, overtime pay, and other pay. The “other pay” can be things like unused sick days--$594,976 worth of them for one California employee – something private sector employees could only dream of.
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/07/13/10-Insanely-Overpaid-Public-Employees.aspx#page1
Photo Gallery: 8 Outrageously Cushy Government Pensions
REFERENCE Under the Bank Secrecy Act, banks are required to establish, implement and maintain programs designed to detect and report suspicious activity indicative of money laundering and other financial crimes.
“The Bank Secrecy Act was enacted to protect the public from harm by identifying and detecting money laundering from criminal enterprises, terrorism, tax evasion or other unlawful activities,” the special agent in charge for Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, explained.
L/E needs to examine the bank accounts used to pay for govt activities.
NOTE WELL The "Bank Secrecy Act" was passed to protect the public from harm by identifying and detecting criminal enterprises, money laundering, tax evasion or other unlawful activities.
Under the Bank Secrecy Act, banks are required to establish, implement and maintain programs designed to detect and report suspicious activity that might be indicative of govt fraud, money laundering, embezzlement, and other financial crimes.
<><> Joint bank accounts might be used to facilitate the transfer of of govt funds. Govt monies may pay for personal and private expenses, credit cards, real estate sunsidies and vehicle purchases.
<><> To cover their tracks, fake invoices might be created to show that money deposited into accounts was being used for legitimate govt purposes.
The scheme might be advanced by issuing phony statements of payments from federal and state sources that actually covered the transfer of funds for govt employees own use.
<><> L/E is directed to get ahold of: (1) copies of checks, (2) wire transfers, (3) account statements, (4) invoices, (5) bills, (6) delivery tickets, (7) correspondence including e-mail, contracts, loan agreements, and, (8) any other books or records. L/E should also explore (a) monies paid to brokers, sub-brokers, (b) family members, (c) mortgage brokers, (d) financial managers, and, (e) real estate agents, brokers, and developers.
<><> L/E should scrutinize bank accounts for suspicious activites: (A) large deposits, (B) funds transferred from one account into another, (C) frequent requests for withdrawals.
<><> Bank records might also show diversions to secret LLC other accounts, to operate personal businesses. Govt fraud can also be facilitated by withdrawals, gift cards purchases, credit card purchases and intrabank transfers from govt accounts into personal accounts.
<><> A huge tipoff is whether bank withdrawals support luxurious lifestyle including payments for real estate, investment and stock holdings, jewelry, luxury vehicles, resort travel and gifts from luxury outlets for wives and mistresses.
Taxpayers demand the Bank Secrecy Act be used to prosecute govt fraud pronto.
FBI TIPS PAGE https://tips.fbi.gov
only works for rats.
ask Trent Lott.
A months paid vacation as punishment. That just shows you how powerful government workers unions are.
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