Politics

Federal agencies have been told that they can begin presenting flags to honor federal employees who are killed in the line of duty, even though rules haven’t been issued to carry out that authority.

An Office of Personnel Management memo sent last week said that federal employees “perform critical work in support of our nation, including, at times, making the ultimate sacrifice, losing their lives in serving the public.”

As Congress enacted the flag honors authority last December, sponsors said nearly 3,000 federal employees have died in the line of duty since 1992, including in terrorist attacks.

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, criticized the retirement package received by Jeffrey Neely, the General Services Administration official caught in a Las Vegas conference spending scandal.

Jeff Neely (J. Scott Applewhite - AP)

Mica said he will propose legislation to halt payment to senior executives who decline to testify on cases of abuse, as Neely did.

Neely, who was responsible for the $823,000 employee conference, will likely receive $100,000 in annual compensation, according to the Transportation Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Public Buildings Service. Neely, who left the agency Thursday, was the public buildings commissioner for GSA’s Pacific Rim region.

At the time of the conference, Neely was acting regional commissioner, the top job in the region, while simultaneously holding his position within the Public Buildings Service.

The U.S. Postal Service said Friday it is offering buyouts to almost all of its 45,000 career mail handlers, the first of an expected wave of efforts by the agency to thin its workforce.

Mail handlers are being offered a total of $15,000 to leave, in installments this December and a year later in 2013. Almost all career employees covered by the Postal Service’s contract with the National Postal Mail Handlers Union are eligible, postal officials said.
The agreement with the mail handlers comes a week after postal officials announced plans to proceed with consolidating and closing 48 mail processing plants this summer. The plant network will shrink by half in the next three years, eliminating 28,000 jobs through attrition and buyouts.

More than 120,000 federal employees and other account holders in the Thrift Savings Plan had personal information including Social Security numbers accessed last year in a “sophisticated cyber attack,” the TSP announced Friday morning.

The TSP is sending letters to affected individuals including information on how to contact a call center that has been established to offer services such as credit monitoring. Also, the TSP is monitoring the affected accounts for suspicious activity.

The attack was made last July against a contractor, Serco Inc., which along with the TSP was notified last month by the FBI. The company and the agency shut down the compromised computer, started a review of computer security procedures and beefed up protections, the TSP said in its announcement.

Jeffrey E. Neely, the embattled General Services Administration regional commissioner who planned a lavish Las Vegas employee conference that cost more than $800,000, has left the agency, a GSA spokesman said.

Neely, the public buildings commissioner for the Pacific Rim region, had been on administrative leave since early April after an inspector general inquiry found rampant waste and abuse associated with the 2010 conference. At the time of the conference, Neely was acting regional commissioner.

News of the overspending on the conference led to the resignation of GSA Administrator Martha Johnson and the firing of her two top lieutenants. Nine other employees were placed on administrative leave.

“GSA is in the process of completing its review of activities associated with the Western Regions Conference and pursuing all available avenues for appropriate disciplinary action against those responsible,” the GSA spokesman said. “Jeff Neely was placed on administrative leave based on his involvement in the WRC. As of today, he’s no longer employed with GSA.”  

The inspector general’s office has asked the Justice Department to conduct a criminal inquiry into Neely’s activities and possible contracting violations.

Neely told investigators that he had set out to change the culture of the Pacific Rim region when he became acting administrator in January 2009. He said he sought high-quality services, even if contracting laws had to be fudged.

Things eventually went off track. An employee awards program, instituted in 2001, grew excessive under Neely’s watch, a separate inspector general’s inquiry found, including thefts, numerous violations of agency directives and misuse of government purchasing cards in the maintenance of the program.

A congressional inquiry into Neely’s management of GSA detailed several instances of personal travel expense charges. His wife, Deborah Neely, accompanied him on some of those trips.

“The guy set up a fiefdom,” said Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), during a congressional inquiry last month. “Not since Jack Abramoff has someone walked with such swagger.”

Neely had planned for the 2010 employee conference to be “over the top,” according to the inspector general’s report. It included a magician and a $75,000 bike-building exercise, and questionable contracting practices.

Employees at the Pacific Rim region office described Neely as confident but arrogant and often abrasive in his management approach.

One employee told GSA investigators that Neely “squashed like a bug” a regional director who questioned his spending on conferences and travel.

Neely did not immediately return a call for comment Thursday.