Waxman Seeks GSA Chief's Testimony

We always expected Waxman to conduct several investigations into the corruption and incompetence of the Bush-ite regime. Here's one such instance:

Waxman Seeks GSA Chief's Testimony :
A powerful House committee chairman released new details yesterday about a widening investigation into allegations of “improper conduct” by the chief of the U.S. General Services Administration.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), head of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said his investigators had obtained information that raises “further questions” about GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan's efforts to give a no-bid job to a longtime friend and professional associate.

Waxman also revealed new allegations that Doan “asked GSA officials in a January teleconference how the agency could be used to help Republican candidates,” in possible violation of federal law.

...
In the letter, Waxman said his investigators learned that the GSA's former chief counsel “was alarmed” that the $20,000 job Doan had given on July 25 to companies run by her friend Edie Fraser had not been put out for bidding. The job was to produce a 24-page report on the GSA's use of minority-owned and women-owned businesses.

Alan R. Swendiman, now a special assistant to President Bush, stated to committee investigators “that he had never seen any GSA administrator personally award a contract, that it was highly irregular, and that he had serious concerns about its propriety and legality.”

Waxman's letter follows a January report in The Washington Post that described the no-bid arrangement and Doan's ongoing disputes with her agency's inspector general's office. As GSA head, Doan presides over the government's largest broker of goods and services, which manages $56 billion in contracts.

The no-bid arrangement was terminated on Aug. 4 after GSA lawyers and other agency officials noted that it violated procurement rules.

Shut the door, Henry! They've been sniffing too many eggs, down at the beanery at half past twelve.

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