FOXNews.com: GSA Hits Opryland as House Convenes Hearing

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GSA Hits Opryland as House Convenes Hearing Aug 1st 2012, 13:48 The embattled General Services Administration isn't exactly taking its lumps.  While a House panel convenes a hearing Wednesday morning to hammer the free-spending GSA for its frequent and costly conferences, the GSA will be holding yet another conference -- this one at the sprawling Opryland convention center in Nashville, Tenn.  The 2012 GSA SmartPay Training Conference runs from Tuesday to Thursday this week. It's for banks investing in the agency's so-called SmartPay system, but also invites a range of officials within GSA.  The visuals of the Nashville conference will likely prove irresistible to lawmakers who are expected Wednesday to point to the gathering as a prime example of GSA's over-spending.  Fox News confirmed that House lawmakers are now looking at as many as 77 conferences where wasteful spending might have occurred.  The conference being held this week in Nashville was held in Las Vegas last year, at a cost of nearly $840,000.  This year, there is an event on the docket Wednesday night on the "General Jackson" steamboat, complete with a reception and entertainment.  Documents obtained exclusively by Fox News show dozens of conferences in recent years, as well as millions of dollars worth of bonuses handed out to employees. At one controversial conference held in suburban Washington in 2010, more than 3,700 employees received bonuses averaging about $1,000 apiece at the conference. The cost to taxpayers was $3.6 million.  Fox News' FOIA request found several GSA conferences have no record of spending -- no receipts and no way to account for the cost associated with travel and conference spending.  Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House transportation committee, will probe this spending at his committee's hearing Wednesday.    "They tried to do everything they could to cover up the October  2010 Las Vegas fiasco. Now, we're hearing there are dozens more. We're going to drag in all the parties involved and get to the bottom of this scandal," Mica told Fox News.  Questioned about the lack of accountability, a GSA spokesman sent a written response to Fox News which said:  "As of April 2012 all spending for events, including training conferences, leadership events, team building exercises, award ceremonies, were suspended. The 2010 awards ceremony was an annual event and has been in existence going back to 2002. Under the new GSA leadership these events and this type of spending are not tolerated." Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

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