Head of GSA Forced to Resign

Posted on April 3, 2012 
Filed Under IN THE NEWS, POLITICS

I thought this was interesting. From the Washington Post, head of the General Services Administration (GSA), Martha Johnson, was forced to resigned Monday, April 2, 2012, due to extravagant spending surrounding a conference her underlings hosted in Henderson, NV in October, 2010.

All told, the GSA spent around $822,000 to host a four day conference for approximately 300 people. Costs included a clown, mind-reader, commerative coins, and top-of-the line catering. Apparently, one of her deputies dropped a dime to the GSA’s Office of Inspector General, who spent a year investigating this conference. Their report came out yesterday, and heads rolled.

I have no proof, but based on my knowledge of the government, I think this sort of thing goes on routinely. The only reason you are hearing about this, is because one of Martha Johnson’s deputies either has a conscience, or simply wanted to wipe out her competition so she could move up the career ladder. Also, in the interest of keeping it real, this is not an Obama only matter. This type of thing goes on under Republican Administrations as well.

The fact is, bureaucrats in government have virtually no reason to track and limit costs. In fact, often it’s quite the opposite. For example, the Department of Transportation gets its money from Congress. It lobbies Congress for the most money it can possibly get, and tells Congress that the blood will run red on the highways if they don’t get it. This is what Ray LaHood is doing right now, as Congress debates the new highway bill. He is demanding outrageous sums of money, and claiming tens of thousands of lives are at stake.

Eventually, Congress will settle on a number, and that’s what DOT will get. They will then divide that number up among the FAA, FRA, FHWA, US Coast Guard, and of course, FMCSA. The same dance goes on. The heads of these sub-agencies… Anne Ferro, in FMCSA’s case, will argue to LaHood that they need a bigger piece of the pie than their brethen sub-agencies.

Finally, once FMCSA has its money, it then divides it up amongst all its various offices and programs. All of FMCSA’s local offices have a budget. For example, the FMCSA office in Pennsylvania has a budget. They are expected to spend that budget. They will receive no reward if they do not spend the budget. In fact, the manager of the office may be punished if he doesn’t spend all of the budget. If they don’t spend it all, when it comes time to replenish the money, how will FMCSA be able to get more money if they didn’t spend all of what they got last year?

I worked for one FMCSA manager, who told me the object was, “spend it all, and ask for more”. I noted when he did ask for more, he always got it. Make no mistake, that is the object: endlessly increasing budgets. Budgets, or money, are power. Agencies increase their power, by spending more, more, more. Spend it all, ask for more. Spend it all, ask for more. Wash, rinse, repeat cycle. It doesn’t matter on what it’s being spent, just spend it. The executive agencies, like GSA or FMCSA, will never limit the spending. Only Congress can do that.

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