Hotel for President Obama's Ethiopia Visit Cost $412K

     President Obama visited Kenya and Ethiopia during his recent trip to Africa, and the hotel bill for the president and his entourage totaled approximately $412,390.86 for the Ethiopia stay alone. A contract with the Hilton in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa was posted online Tuesday:

     The president arrived in Addis Ababa on Sunday, July 26 and departed on July 28. The government also spent $7,540 for cell phones for the president's Ethiopia visit. The White House did not respond to a request for an explanation.

Note: A version of this post first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

Michelle Obama 2-Day Hotel Stay in China Costs $222K

    Michelle Obama wrapped up her March visit to China with a stop in Chengdu, arriving on Tuesday, March 25 and departing for the United States on the following day.  But that one leg of the trip alone required about 900 room nights, ranging from 21 rooms beginning on March 13 for the advance team to a peak of 144 rooms when the first lady herself was at the hotel.

    The documents prepared in support of the stay estimated the cost at around 1,393,500 yuan (RMB), or $222,000 at current exchange rates:

    According to the documents, one of the factors in choosing the Shangri-La Hotel was a security consideration that "will allow party to occupy the entire top two floors for the visit."

    The documents also state that the local Ritz-Carlton had expressed interest in hosting the first lady, but...

in preliminary price comparisons, the cost was sufficiently more than the Shangri-La. We requested a price reduction but a great cost difference remained for the both the Executive Junior Suites, that will serve as control rooms, and the Presidential Suite.

    The cost of the first lady's hotel room for the Beijing portion of her trip, reportedly $8,400/night, raised some eyebrows at the time.  As THE WEEKLY STANDARD reported, the prices of the Westin Chaoyang Hotel where Mrs. Obama and her group stayed had been deemed "prohibitive" for Vice President Biden's trip to China in December 2013.
    So far, the documents for the Chengdu portion of Mrs. Obama's trip are the only ones that have been posted online by the State Department.  Mrs. Obama was in China March 19-26.


Note: A version of this post first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

Food Stamp Trafficking Up 30% From 2008 to 2011 [Updated]

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture* (USDA) released a report on Thursday regarding illegal trafficking in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly known as food stamps.  The report showed that the rate of trafficking rose from 1% of total benefits in the last study period of 2006-2008 to 1.3% in the current study period of 2009-2011, an increase of 30%.  The report noted the trafficking rate remains well below a rate of almost 4% that existed for much of the 1990s.  The rate plunged to 1% by the 2002-2005 study period and remained there until the current report:

    While the rate remains relatively low, the sharp increase in the SNAP program means the total annualized dollar amount of fraud reached a record level of $858 million, exceeding the $811 million from 1993.  This value had been dropping dramatically to a low of $241 for 2002-2005, then ticked up to $330 million in 2006-2008 before exploding in the current report to $858 million.

    The report attributes much of the dollar increase to the growth in SNAP.  Total redemptions more than doubled from 2008 to 2011:

A substantial portion of this increase is due to the growth in the program, where redemptions totaled $36 billion in 2008 (the last year of the previous study period), then increased to $55 billion in 2009 (the first year of present study period) and eventually to $73 billion in 2011. 

    The latest figures show that SNAP redemptions rose again in 2012 to $74.6 billion.
    The USDA study also found that the percentage of authorized SNAP stores engaging in trafficking went from 8.2% in 2006-2008 to 10.5% in 2009-2011, a 28% increase, but still not as high as an 11.7% rate in the 1990s.
    Although food stamp trafficking is illegal, the report notes that

trafficking does not increase costs to the Federal Government, it is a diversion of program benefits from their intended purpose of helping low-income families access a nutritious diet.

    In conjunction with the release of the report, the USDA announced "Additional Measures to Improve Integrity in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program."

UPDATE:

    I don't usually link to reactions to my articles, but I thought the contrast of these two was interesting:

• Jonathan Cohn - The New Republic
• Neil Cavuto - Fox Business

*Corrected.  Originally said "Food and Drug Administration".

Note: A version of this article first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

Dept. of Transportation Audit of Stimulus Money Terminated Despite Estimated Improper Payments of $100M

    Despite an admission by the Department of Transportation (DOT) that the Federal-aid Highway Programs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) are "susceptible to significant improper payments," the DOT Inspector General has terminated an audit initiated in April "due to other higher priority work demands."  The original announcement of the audit of the ARRA programs (better known as the "stimulus") reported that DOT estimated improper payments of more than $100 million in 2012 alone [emphasis added]:

FHWA has funded approximately 13,000 State and local highway  infrastructure projects and has disbursed almost  $26 billion in ARRA funds.
The Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 makes Federal agencies accountable for preventing and detecting improper payments within their programs. The Improper Payment Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 requires identification and estimation of improper payments. The Department of Transportation (DOT) has identified FHWA’s Federal-aid Highway Programs as susceptible to significant improper payments. In fiscal year 2012, DOT reported an estimate of $103.2 million  in improper payments in FHWA’s Federal-aid Highway Program.

    A report on another IG audit relating to the Federal Highway Administration and the ARRA was just issued on May 7, 2013 and found areas for improvement in DOT's oversight of the administration of program funds:

On May 7, 2013, we reported that FHWA inspections did not routinely verify whether States detected instances of noncompliance with some Federal requirements. For example, we projected that $125.6 million, or 12 percent, of ARRA progress payments made to contractors in three States were unsupported.

    The IG said that "all four recommendations" stemming from that audit were "resolved but open pending completion of planned actions" by DOT.

     The more recent audit, which began in April and was terminated this week, was intended to test DOT's internal controls to see if they were adequate to "prevent and detect improper payments" to ARRA grant recipients. The IG's termination letter stated that the audit may still take place at a later date.


Note: A version of this article first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

President Obama: "We Still Waste Money in All Kinds of Things That Don't Work"

   At a Democratic National Committee fund raising event in Atherton, California Thursday morning, President Obama declared that the United States government still needs to get its fiscal house in order:

We still waste money in all kinds of things that don't work, and we have the capacity to shift those dollars into things that do work and that will grow our economy.  And we can reduce our deficit, stabilize our debt, and do so without sacrificing the kinds of investments that are going to be required to grow.

    During his remarks, the president spoke of the need to invest in education, meet environmental challenges, catch up on "$2 trillion in deferred maintenance," invest in science and research, and invest in new energy sources of the future.

    He did not cite any examples of how the government is currently wasting money.


Note: The article first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

You Can't Spell "Vegas" Without G, S, and A

    The Washington Post's In the Loop blog noted today that the GSA had cancelled an upcoming conference in Las Vegas as part of the fallout from the embarrassing revelations of a lavish (has that word been overused yet?) conference in 2010 that was highlighted in an auditor's report and ultimately led to the firing of eight GSA officials and the resignation of GSA head Martha N. Johnson.  In the Loop notes that this recently cancelled conference "... would have been a lot less splashy, since the venue — the relatively modest Hampton Inn Tropicana — can’t hold a candle to the luxe M Resort Spa Casino, where the 2010 shenanigans went down."
    However, a search of the GSA website reveals the quiet cancellation of another GSA conference that was to be held at the same M Resort Spa Casino as the infamous Clown-and-Mind-Reading conference.   The short description that the Google search finds says the conference was to be held "Wednesday, September 5, 2012 - Thursday, September 6, 2012 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM. The M Resort 12300 Las Vegas Boulevard South Henderson, NV 89044."  But clicking on the link brings up a page that begins "We apologize for the inconvenience... The link or location you used does not exist or has changed."  However, there is a Google cache version of the original page.  The event was to be called "Opening Doors NEVADA."  A further search revealed the existence of a separate website for the conference.  However, clicking on the registration link brings up a page with the following message: "We are sorry to announce the cancellation of our GSA Opening Doors 2012-2013 small business conference series in the Pacific Rim Region."  No reason is given for the cancellation.

    It is quite likely the GSA is hoping the attention it has attracted lately will begin to subside, but so far that has not happened, and is not likely to before the Congressional hearing on April 16th.  It will be interesting to see if the cancelled Open Doors Neveda conference comes up at the hearing.  And although the GSA may feel differently, it might also be interesting to find out if another GSA conference held in Las Vegas in 2010 (July) was anything like the October conference.  The 21st Annual Child Care Conference of the GSA was held at the Paris Hotel and Casino (pictured right) in Las Vegas July 13-15, 2010.  Is it possible lightning struck twice that year?  Only time (and perhaps YouTube) will tell.