One General Services Administration employee has the whole department in hot water over his spoof rap video recorded to parody the lavish spending at the government agency. It probably doesn’t help that an official report released this week documented massive overspending at a time when congressional Republicans are eyeing domestic austerity.
“I buy everything your field office can’t afford,” raps a government employee at the GSA. “I’ll never be under OIG investigation.”
Note: OIG is an acronym used to refer to the Office of the Inspector General.
The video is well produced and witty, which only raises additional questions about how GSA employees are allocating their tax payer-funded time. A talent show contribution like this would probably have been overlooked if it hadn't drawn attention to important questions being asked at the congressional level about the propriety of agency spending
The results of an actual OIG investigation this week revealed that the GSA’s Top Hat awards program (bragged about in the video) provided employees with over $200,000 worth iPods and electronics. In addition, the GSA spent 822,000 tax dollars on a Las Vegas training event which included one $75,000 team building exercise and over $12,000 in swag.
A GSA spokesman responded to the outcry over the video saying, "This video is another example of the complete lack of judgment exhibited during the 2010 Western Regions Conference. Our agency continues to be appalled by this indefensible behavior, and we are taking every step possible to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again."
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s office indicated that they are investigating the abuse of funds at the agency.
See the video for yourself below: