WASHINGTON — Remember the Pentagon’s $600 toilet seats and $400 hammers?
Now, the $16 muffins at a Justice Department conference are causing, well, heartburn.
Sen.
Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary
Committee, is steamed over a Justice Department inspector general audit
that found apparently “extravagant and potentially wasteful” expenses at
conferences, including $16 muffins and coffee and tea that cost as much
as $8 per 8-ounce cup.
“The Justice Department appears to be blind to the economic realities our country is facing,” Grassley said in a statement.
“The
inspector general’s office just gave a blueprint for the first cuts
that should be made by the super committee,” he added, referring to the
panel tasked with reducing the federal budget deficit.
Rep.
Frank Wolf, R-Va., who chairs the House appropriations subcommittee
that oversees Justice Department spending, also weighed in with his
displeasure over the food and beverage tab for conferences.
“It
is clear that while American taxpayers were tightening their belts and
making difficult financial decisions, the department was splurging on
wasteful snacks and drinks as well as unnecessary event planning
‘consultants,’” he said in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric
Holder.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said that
most of the conferences that were the subject of the audit were planned
and held in the last administration “when there were no strict limits
on food and beverage costs” for such events.
“We
agree that excessive spending of the types identified in the OIG report
should not occur,” the spokeswoman said in a statement, adding that the
department has taken steps “to ensure that these problems do not occur
again.” In the first six months of the 2011 fiscal year, overall
conference spending was reduced, the spokeswoman added.
In
the case of the muffins, the report credited planners of a 2009
conference in Washington for not serving full meals. However, the audit
noted that the planners spent $4,200 on 250 muffins and $2,880 on 300
cookies and brownies.
“By itemizing these costs,
with service and gratuity, muffins cost over $16 each and cookies and
brownies cost almost $10 each,” according to the report.
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