Agency Oversight

  • Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, and Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the ranking member of the Senate committee, called on VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to fire his chief of staff, John Gingrich after an inspector general report said he failed to ask the right questions before approving two training conferences. The conferences costs $6.1 million, with as much as $762,000 in questionable spending.

    October 09, 2012
  • Two Veterans Affairs Department training conferences held last summer in Orlando, Fla., contained as much as $762,000 in wasteful spending and were plagued by poor planning and oversight, according to an inspector general report released Monday.

    October 01, 2012
  • The $14 million owed to the U.S. treasury comes from money withheld from federal employees' paychecks that was never turned over to the IRS, according to a new audit from the Treasury Inspector General For Tax Administration. The audit also reviewed whether the IRS made recommended changes following a similar audit five years ago.

    September 27, 2012
  • Providing awards to whistleblowers is key to bringing would-be informants forward. And a record $104 million after taxes payout to former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld serves as a billboard to whistleblowers that the IRS is willing to pay out for information that helps catch tax cheaters.

    September 24, 2012
  • House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management approved the Public Buildings Reform Act. It includes reducing GSA's Public Buildings Service workforce to 2008 levels and freezing SES bonuses through 2014 across the entire agency.

    September 21, 2012
  • The Interagency Suspension and Debarment Committee (ISDC) issued its annual report to Congress showing that the use of suspension and debarment increased substantially in 2011 over 2009 and 2010.

    September 18, 2012
  • Steve Kempf will return after his medical leave as a senior adviser. GSA posted the commissioner's job on USAJobs.gov on Monday.

    September 18, 2012
  • The acting administrator of GSA said he met with IG Brian Miller and David Shea after accusations the IG investigator's tactics were overly aggressive in looking into the recent SmartPay Conference. Tangherlini also expects to receive suggestions on how the CIO reorganization would work, and how to go forward with the reduction of FAS fees in the coming weeks.

    September 14, 2012
  • Senate lawmakers and the agency's Inspector General say the strategy to reorganize the General Services Administration and make it more accountable is on the right track. Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini said he will consolidate IT and HR across the agency, and reduce contracting fees charged by the Federal Acquisition Service.

    September 13, 2012
  • Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini will tell Senate lawmakers today about his plans to continue reforming the agency in the aftermath of the Western Regions Conference scandal. Along with consolidating CIO and human resources offices, Tangherlini wants the Federal Acquisition Service to reduce its fees. Federal News Radio has obtained an exclusive copy of Tangherlini's testimony.

    September 12, 2012
  • A new Government Accountability Office report says the Federal Protective Service isn't doing enough to safeguard more than 9,000 federal buildings.

    September 11, 2012
  • The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction says there's no proof the fuel is actually being used by Afghan forces. It could be lost, stolen or diverted to insurgents.

    September 10, 2012
  • In a routine pre-hearing briefing call, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee staff members asked Brian Miller about his staff's decision to knock on a GSA employee's door after 11 p.m. at the SmartPay conference last month. Miller and acting GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini are scheduled to testify Sept. 12 before the committee on changes the agency has made in light of the conference spending scandals.

    September 06, 2012
  • If you move a few letters around the initials of the General Services Administration, you get G- A-S, as in explosive, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says. Just when you thought GSA couldn't get in any deeper there's another explosion.

    September 05, 2012