Scandals expose a disconnect between mission and reality

When the watchdogs are the ones that need watching the most, something is seriously wrong.

And that’s why it is so troubling to watch the two latest government scandals unfold.

The General Services Administration describes itself as “responsible for improving the government’s workplace by managing assets, delivering maximum value in acquisitions, preserving historic property, and implementing technology solutions.”

The Secret Service says its mission “is to safeguard the nation’s financial infrastructure and payment systems to preserve the integrity of the economy, and to protect national leaders, visiting heads of state and government [and] designated sites.”

And yet, the agency that is supposed to do its best to save the government money threw an $823,000 bash in Las Vegas and sprang for junkets for various GSA officials to Hawaii, South Pacific islands and California’s Napa Valley. And an advance team of the Secret Service, whose job it is to protect the life of the president, took a break from security planning to spend a night entertaining and being entertained by Colombian prostitutes. There are careless breaches of security and reckless, monumentally stupid breaches of security. This fell into the latter category.

What comes first?

Both incidents speak to a tendency of government employees to forget that they are on the payroll to do a job; the job isn’t there for their convenience and indulgence.

We’re inclined to write the Secret Service party off as an aberration, and one that is not likely to be repeated. Members of the Secret Service and their military support staff are generally disciplined and focused. The embarrassment and job losses that are already part of the fallout should be enough to keep the next generation of presidential protectors on the straight and narrow.

The utter lack of discipline shown by the GSA officials who planned the Las Vegas conference and the 300 employees who not only fell into the spirit of things, but joked about the extravagance is a deeper rooted problem. When the people whose job it is to find the best deal for the taxpayers in buying, selling and maintaining assets think the government has money to burn, serious corrective action is in order.

Inspector General Brian Miller said there are “ongoing investigations including all sorts of improprieties, including bribes, possibly kickbacks” and that criminal prosecutions are anticipated. He also said that the outraged response by the public and Congress to recent disclosures has encouraged whistleblowers to come forward with information about other abuses.

That’s a start, but not a solution.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said she plans to introduce legislation within a week that would tighten spending controls at the GSA and other Cabinet-level agencies. “I see it with contracting all the time,” said McCaskill, chairwoman of the Senate Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight. “You look at the contracting that went on in Iraq and Afghanistan and goes on in Homeland Security. It is stunning there has not been more of an outcry. This one captures everyone’s imagination because it’s so easy to visualize.”

McCaskill notes that many government employees are reliable public servants. And are even whistleblowers. But it takes a highly public scandal to expose the unseen abuses. The Las Vegas party boys and girls may have ironically sacrificed their jobs for the greater good: shining a light on some of the obscene waste that exists in government.