AP: Report Finds Lavish Spending at TSA

[Newsjock]

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/9910470.htm

LESLIE MILLER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The government agency in charge of airport security spent nearly a half-million dollars on an awards ceremony at a lavish hotel, including $81,000 for plaques and $500 for cheese displays, according to an internal report obtained by The Associated Press.

Awards were presented to 543 Transportation Security Administration employees and 30 organizations, including a "lifetime achievement award" for one worker with the 2-year-old agency. Almost $200,000 was spent on travel and lodging for attendees.

The investigation by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general, Clark Kent Ervin, also found the TSA gave its senior executives bonuses averaging $16,000, higher than at any other federal government agency, and failed to provide adequate justification in more than a third of the 88 cases examined.

... The event planning company, MarCom Group Inc. of Fairfax, Va., was paid $85,552 for its work and given an additional $81,767 for plaques, $5,196 for official photographs, $1,486 for three balloon arches and $1,509 for signs.

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[AspenRose]

1. I feel much safer now, how about you?

:puke:

[Trajan]

2. A World Safe for Cheese ....

My kind of world ....

Mmmmm .. May I have some Smoked Cheddar pleeeeze ? ...

Er .... Not the 'IRRADIATED' Cheddar ... the 'Smoked Cheddar' ! ...

[Fridays Child]

3. A friend sent me this, about spending at the Dept. of Homeland Security.

I thought you'd like to see a dispatch from my friend the INS agent:

NEWS FLASH

Department of Homeland Security is 500 million in the hole;

Law enforcement and time sensitive information is not being shipped FEDEX due to budget constraints;

Agents, on call 24/7, are encouraged to carpool to firearm qualifications to save gas;

Travel on investigations are being halted;

Award ceremonies, held on public properties, are being cancelled (no budget for plaques or awards);

Law enforcement personnel are not receiving step increases;

Some law enforcement personnel have to wear bulletproof vests which are over five years old (the normal life expectancy of a vest);

Michael Garcia, Assistant Secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under the Department of Homeland Security, attended and addressed a conference in Cancun, Mexico.

[Pale_Rider]

4. MarCom Group eh?

http://www.marcomgroup.com/

Seems to be a big marketing managment group sucking off the government teats. VA, GSA, EPA, FCC ...

Breaking News Release ...
MarCom Group Awarded $4 Million BPA — On May 1, 2004, MarCom Group was awarded a 5-year blanket purchase agreement (BPA) from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) valued at nearly $4 million. The new BPA contract, awarded under the GSA Advertising & Integrated Marketing Solutions (AIMS) Schedule, will allow MarCom Group to help the VA strengthen their acquisition system and better serve our nation's heroes. For more information contact Robert Rainford.

[Rose Siding]

5. Love that republican-style small govt

Poor old Senator Robert C Byrd will have a stroke

[Rex_Goodheart]

6. Our deficit is such a big mystery, isn't it?

My plan to reduce the deficit would start with automatically cutting Federal salaries by 2/3 for anybody "earning" over $50,000 per year. Let those guys feel what it's like in the private sector.

[pinniped]

7. Thanks to asshole*, two years is all the lifetime one might have.

------"lifetime achievement award" for one worker with the 2-year-old agency------

Get your lifetime achievement awards while you can!

[Amigust]

8. Fiscal conservatives at work

eom

[R Hickey]

9. Jobs for Bush contributers and their children.

Homeland Security must be a really fun Department to work in. It sounds like one of those party colleges you may have once read about in Playboy Magazine. The top tier of these jobs are political favors given out to Bush fund raisers.

[saigon68]

12. LIKE PIGS SWILLING AT THE --- "PUBLIC TROUGH"

DISGUSTING

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. But we make the taxpayers of NYC pay for the overtime

for our cops to protect those scum?

Oh, this is just lovely.

[Maeve]

11. Whatever happened to fiscal responsibility?

And the idea that it's OUR money?