The Government Man has been pretty quiet lately, save for an occasional blog or You Tube posting. The GSA scandal has been long out of the news.
My insiders tell me that GSA has taken disciplinary action against those implicated in the alleged wrongdoing. As I said before, I am not attempting to defend those who made unconscionable decisions in this episode, but I will defend those who were railroaded for a political show or who did not receive due process.
Considering the headlines and the staged outrage by certain elected officials, the punishments were mild. A few quiet retirements, some watered down suspensions (which I predict will be appealed and even further reduced or rescinded after the election) and a few removals.
It is the removals which represent another future embarrassment to GSA. These were initiated because of the White House call for quick action and not for cause. When these cases go to MSPB, and they most certainly will, GSA’s pr people will have to stretch their imaginations to put a positive spin on the outcome. Case history on arbitrary removals shows big settlements, but these will be sealed and will be long after the election so nobody will ever know about it.
As more time goes by, the ruminations in my last You Tube post are proven more correct every day. Little or nothing has come of the criminal allegations and the so-called serious contracting violations have quietly dissipated. Simply said, bad judgment or stupidity are not criminal actions.
By seeking headlines, which is totally against investigative protocol, the IG screwed up royally. It gave people a chance to bail out or cover their tracks if there indeed was any criminal action.
Hopefully Congress will get to issues such as the budget and national debt before resuming their debates about the shrimp cocktails in Las Vegas.
Check out my most recent You Tube post.
Exactly – hope Congress can spend some time solving the trillion dollar problem of budget/debt
Hope you are right in that Congress will deal with issues like budget and national debt but would offer that those rather sticky issues do not convert into election issues where the GSA “stink” does rather easily convert to votes
Our training/travel budget was tight to begin with. Real tight. In light of the GSA scandal. No one is going anywhere at anytime, period. Thanks GSA for spoiling it for the “little feds”.
this is almost like the everyready bunny… Keeps on going…
Although I can somewhat understand the reasoning for it having a life of it’s own (anybody spell politics/budget)
From CNN:
Troubled federal agency paid for cooking classes, hosted holiday video contest
IMO meaningful and relevant quote from the ~1500 word article:
“Nine team building classes over 4 years at a cost of 20,701”
due the arithmetic ~2300. dollars per class ~5175.00 per year for leadership/team building training…
Come on folks give me a break!