According to this article on Space.Com, NASA's Inspector General office recently found that $62,611 was spent on snacks, for get this, a recent Procurement Conference.
The conference was for 317 attendees who were gathered in Baltimore, MD in December of 2008 for a conference that was intended to train staff on procurement issues. The overall cost of this single conference was $495,173. The article goes on to talk about a more recent conference in Atlanta with a food budget approaching $60K that not only paid for snacks for NASA employees, but also contractors and anyone else that wanted to attend the event.
NASA agreed with the Inspector General's findings that their conferences are excessive, and they plan to draw up new guidelines for spending in the "next month or so".
For an organization that already has lost significant public funding, and is at risk to lose much more, to take a year and a half even identify these issues, let alone address them is absurd.
Hey NASA, think about hiring a Procurement Service Provider to help plan your next event!
The conference was for 317 attendees who were gathered in Baltimore, MD in December of 2008 for a conference that was intended to train staff on procurement issues. The overall cost of this single conference was $495,173. The article goes on to talk about a more recent conference in Atlanta with a food budget approaching $60K that not only paid for snacks for NASA employees, but also contractors and anyone else that wanted to attend the event.
NASA agreed with the Inspector General's findings that their conferences are excessive, and they plan to draw up new guidelines for spending in the "next month or so".
For an organization that already has lost significant public funding, and is at risk to lose much more, to take a year and a half even identify these issues, let alone address them is absurd.
Hey NASA, think about hiring a Procurement Service Provider to help plan your next event!
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