Chief of General Services Administration Resigns

This is the GSA, which is a federal government procurement and contracting agency. The agency also develops cost-management for the federal government, and job it's obviously under-performing.

At the New York Times, "Agency Administrator Fires Deputies, Then Resigns, Amid Spending Inquiry":

WASHINGTON — The administrator of the General Services Administration fired her two top deputies, then resigned Monday ahead of an investigation into a conference the agency held in Las Vegas that included commemorative coins, lavish meals, a mind reader and a $75,000 team-building exercise assembling bicycles.

The agency’s inspector general was set to release a yearlong investigation of the four-day conference, whose costs included more than $822,000 spent to fly 300 people to the M Resort Spa Casino outside Las Vegas and entertain them in style, when Martha Johnson, the administrator, abruptly resigned and announced the firings, citing “a significant misstep.” The report was posted on the inspector general’s Web site hours later.

The General Services Administration is an independent agency that supplies federal offices and manages buildings and office space. The event under investigation was the western regional conference of the Public Building Service, in October 2010.

White House officials described the conference as “a complete violation of administration rules,” and moved swiftly to prevent the episode from becoming a larger symbol of administration spending. Robert Peck, the Public Buildings Service chief, and Ms. Johnson’s top adviser, Stephen Leeds, were dismissed. Four General Services Administration employees who organized the conference were placed on administrative leave, according to a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss confidential personnel matters.

“On his first day in office, President Obama made clear that the people who serve in his administration are keepers of the public trust and that public service is a privilege,” said Jacob J. Lew, the White House chief of staff, in a statement. “When the White House was informed of the inspector general’s findings, we acted quickly to determine who was responsible for such a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars.”

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And at Twitchy, "Rep. Issa outraged over USGSA corruption."