Washington’s bureaucratic elites have been rocked by the recent scandal at the General Services Administration that forced the head of the agency to resign in disgrace. The GSA, which handles government properties and purchasing, spent $823,000 on a regional conference for employees in Las Vegas. The officials who organized the conference, after multiple scouting trips to “test out” the best hotels, hired a clown and a mind reader to liven up the event. They spent $7,000 on sushi, $59,000 for audio-visual services and $75,000 for a bicycle-building exercise for attendees.
Brian Miller, the GSA’s inspector general who uncovered this junket, has offered taxpayers a window into the sense of entitlement that permeates the government bureaucracy. It is not enough that federal employees enjoy nearly absolute job security while making 16 percent more than average private sector workers in pay and benefits. GSA employees went so far as to game the system to extract free food from taxpayers. Because federal rules only allowed government-funded food at “award ceremonies,” employees cleverly devised “goofy awards” to get free food. These fake awards became the subject of “a running joke” among agency employees, one whistleblower reported — one of them was actually called “The Jackass Award.”
