IRS Facing More Blowback for Huge Conference Expenditures
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Comstock Images/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is expected to have a field day Thursday when it reviews an inspector’s general report on the $49 million spent by the Internal Revenue Service on conferences between 2010 and 2012.
The $50,000 used to produce Star Wars parody videos has already been cited. Other examples of what critics say was wasteful spending included $17,000 for an artist who made images of Michael Jordan, Bono, Albert Einstein and Abraham Lincoln during one IRS conference.
According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, IRS Deputy Commissioner Faris Fink spent five nights in a two-bedroom presidential suite at the Anaheim, Calif., Hilton.
Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, who has conducted previous hearings on what he considers excessive government spending, is ready to grill Fink on Thursday.
Last year, General Services Administration was slammed by Congress for holding a retreat in Las Vegas that used $822,000 in taxpayer money.
However, the IRS went well over and above that, according to the watchdog report, with seven conferences that each totaled more than the GSA bash.
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