GSA Burning Up Taxpayer Money
PHILLIPS: The GSA is supposed to be overseeing federal agencies and the spending of our tax dollars, so we were all pretty outraged when we found out that some of its employees ventured out on that now- infamous $800,000 Las Vegas conference. Now, it turns out that wasn't the only boondoggle. Our Drew Griffin investigates.</s>DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: It happened had here at the Culinary Center of Kansas City on a quaint street in Overland Park, Kansas, where GSA employees did not just get a free lunch. They got to spend most of the day making it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cooking is not a mystery. Everybody can learn it.</s>GRIFFIN: It's all about what the Culinary Center's own video calls "team-building." Teams make entrees, make desserts. What did the GSA employees get out of this? This is one of those employees who says he's afraid to show his face because his boss will be mad.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was lunch. We had 25 minutes to get a recipe together, cook for three. I think there were roughly 25 or 30 people there. And then we were critiqued along the way by the chefs at the institute on what we could do better.</s>GRIFFIN: And those GSA employees got the whole day off real work to do it. So this was the day's activity, learning how to cook?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.</s>GRIFFIN: And it didn't just happen once. Since 2007, GSA employees came to the Culinary Center of Kansas City nine times for these team-building exercises. They cooked lunch. It cost you more than $20,000. That's the total amount for all those cooking classes. Granted, in the world of trillion-dollar government budgets, that's not a lot of money, but our insider says it is part of the free-spending culture that's gone on for years at the Kansas City regional headquarters.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of what I would look at as juvenile behavior when it comes to caring about what the taxpayers' money is used for.</s>GRIFFIN: Our investigation into spending at the Kansas City office found, not only did workers learn how to cook lunch, the GSA hired an etiquette instructor to teach workers how to eat it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How to hold your napkin, how to use your fork, knife.</s>GRIFFIN: He's not making it. The etiquette instructor who billed the federal government nearly a thousand dollars confirms she taught GSA employees about the place settings and the different courses, how they are going to be served, how to eat soup and salad, what to do with your napkin, how to butter your roll. To top it all off, we also found the GSA's Kansas City office awarded its workers with a $3,000 awards lunch, possibly to show off that newly learned etiquette. When we began asking about this we were directed to Washington, D.C., to the headquarters of the GSA, where we were told we could get answers in writing, but no one would be able to answer our questions on camera. So we showed up at this public ceremony back at the GSA regional headquarters in Kansas City to meet this man.</s>JASON KLUMB, ADMINISTRATOR, GSA HEARTLAND DIVISION: Good morning.</s>GRIFFIN: Jason Klumb is the politically appointed regional administrator of GSA's Heartland Division which covers four states. He's been in charge since February of 2010. In charge of three cooking classes, etiquette speaker and $3,000 awards lunch. (on camera): This is outrageous to people when they hear things like government workers going to cooking classes and not just one but very many over several years. Why was that allowed to go on?</s>KLUMB: It was the culture, the old culture at GSA. And we saw it in all the news that was generated out of their western region conferences, the old culture.</s>GRIFFIN: Why weren't you able to put a stop it when you came into the office.</s>KLUMB: We've seen new leadership at the agency and that will affect my ability to put a stop to those kinds of things. But, absolutely right, it's not acceptable.</s>GRIFFIN: Do you, as the administrator, have the power to stop that kind of stuff.</s>KLUMB: When we see new policies put in place there's more authority that will be given to regional administrators to stop things like that.</s>GRIFFIN: Do you not have the power now?</s>KLUMB: Don't have it now.</s>GRIFFIN: Really?</s>KLUMB: Haven't had it. Yes</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): One other thing Jason Klumb didn't have the power to stop --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scrooge, this is the ghost of GSA present. Let's take a look at you action.</s>GRIFFIN: -- last year's holiday video contest.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the ghost of GSA past.</s>GRIFFIN: It's another team building exercise. The team that came up with the most creative video about -- get this -- efficiency in the GSA, would win an ice cream social. All of what you're seeing was written, produced, acted, taped and edited on federal government time. (on camera): Will these videos make people better employees, improve the systems, improve the efficiencies of the office?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. They were just for see how cute they could be would be my estimation.</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): GSA employees used to be able to watch the videos online. But when the news broke about that spending scandal in Las Vegas, that's when the holiday videos disappeared. Klumb, who says he didn't know about the cooking classes, couldn't exactly use the same excuse when it came to the holiday videos.</s>KLUMB: I was one of the judges. Again, that was part of a culture that was pretty common throughout GSA. And absolutely something that is changing. I think you see a new day at</s>GSA. GRIFFIN: GSA headquarters tells CNN in a statement, "These events indicate a pattern of misjudgment, which span several years and administrations." The agency spokesperson went on to show that "Under the new GSA leadership, these events would not have been approved. And only light refreshments like water and pretzels will be allowed inside a federal facility at future team-building exercises."</s>KLUMB: We see a need at GSA. We see a culture shift and a new day. I'm very optimistic about that.</s>PHILLIPS: If you're leaving the house right now, just a reminder, continue watching CNN from your mobile phone. And watch CNN live from your desk top. Go to CNN.com/tv.