[Infowarrior] - Think DOD wastes money? Try DOJ's lobster dinner and $4 meatballs

[Richard Forno]

Lobster dinners and cookies among top-dollar snacks at pricey U.S. Justice
Department conferences

The Associated Press
Friday, September 14, 2007

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/14/america/NA-GEN-US-Justice-Dept-Pri
cey-Snacks.php

WASHINGTON: An internal U.S. Justice Department audit, released Friday,
showed the department spent nearly $7 million (€5 million) to plan, host or
send employees to 10 conferences over the last two years. This included
paying $4 (€2. 90) per meatball at one lavish dinner and spreading an
average of $25 (€18) worth of snacks around to each participant at a
movie-themed party.

There was plenty, too, for those needing to satisfy a sweet tooth.

More than $13,000 (€9,380) was spent on cookies and brownies for 1,542
people who attended a four-day conference in August 2005, according to the
audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. And a
"networking" session replete with butterfly shrimp, coconut lobster skewers
and Swedish meatballs at a Community Oriented Policing Services conference
in July 2006 cost more than $60,000 (€43,290).

Ironically, the cheapest meeting on Fine's list was the only one held
outside the United States: $181,648 (€131,060) to send FBI agents to a
conference in Cambodia in March 2006. Most of the price tag — $172,327
(€124,335) — paid travel costs for the agents.

The report, which looked at the 10 priciest Justice Department conferences
between October 2004 and September 2006, was ordered by the Senate
Appropriations Committee. It also found that three-quarters of the employees
who attended the conferences demanded daily reimbursement for the cost of
meals while traveling — effectively double-dipping into government funds.

Auditors "found that using appropriated funds to pay for expensive meals and
snacks at certain DOJ conferences, while allowable, appear to have been
extravagant," the report concluded.

Responding, the Justice Department's management and administration office
promised to prevent future extravagances of the sort that Fine's auditors
turned up.

A Justice Department spokesman had no immediate comment Friday.

Six of the 10 conferences were approved by the department's Office of
Justice Programs, whose assistant attorney general, Regina Schofield,
resigned this week. It could not immediately be determined whether the
report had anything to do with her resignation.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who chairs the Senate panel that oversees Justice
spending, said the audit raises concerns about how the department uses
taxpayer dollars.

"I will continue to fight for legislation that insists on discipline and
vigorous oversight in the Justice Department," Mikulski, a Democrat, said in
a statement.

The most expensive conference on the list was a $1.4 million (€1 million)
meeting, in 2006 in the western state Colorado, to discuss Project Safe
Neighborhood. The program, designed to crack down on guns, gangs and drugs,
was a top priority for resigning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Planners
spent $143,469 (€103,510) on microphones, video screens and other technical
equipment; $108,866 (€78,550) on food and drinks; and $638,371 (€460,585) on
travel costs to send employees to the conference, the audit showed.

In all, the department spent $6.9 million (€5 million) on the 10 conferences
reviewed. The audit did not compare Justice's conference costs to those at
other government agencies.

Despite the expense, the audit showed the department's has spent less on
conferences over the last several years. The price tag for all Justice
conferences during the two years came to $81 million (€58.4 million) — down
from $110 million (€79.4 million) in 2003-04.

___

The audit by the Justice Department's inspector general can be found at:
http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/plus/a0742/final.pdf