The U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs, under fire for unauthorized and wasteful spending at
two Florida conferences, has more than tripled its expenditures
for such events over six years.

Taxpayers have funded about $295 million for the
conferences, according to records obtained in response to a
Freedom of Information Act request. The agency has paid for
almost 1,600 overnight gatherings attended by at least 50 VA
employees since 2005.

The department’s spending on such events jumped to $77.7
million in 2011 from $24 million in 2005. The amount increased
every year since 2006, when it dipped to $21.6 million, rising
even as lawmakers warned the agency to ensure VA funding
increases were used to support veterans.

“We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg,” Representative
Jeff Miller, the Florida Republican who heads the House veterans
affairs committee, said in an e-mailed statement. “It is clear
that VA has been on a conference spending spree the last few
years, with little oversight or accountability. Why VA felt it
had to host multiple million dollar destination conferences
during an ongoing fiscal crisis defies reason.”

Josh Taylor, a VA spokesman, didn’t immediately respond to
e-mail and phone messages seeking comment.

John Sepulveda, the VA’s assistant secretary for human
resources, resigned amid the fallout from the conference
scandal. He was listed as a speaker at the two human resources
events held in 2011 at the Marriott International Inc. resort
near Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

The department announced his resignation a day before the
Oct. 1 release of an inspector general’s report that found VA
employees accepted gifts such as massages, Rockettes tickets,
helicopter rides and limousine services. They also incurred
$762,000 in unauthorized or wasteful expenses tied to the two
gatherings, according to the document.

San Francisco Conference

The inspector general also said the two events cost more
than $6 million, more than the $5 million that VA officials had
estimated.

They weren’t the most expensive, according to the documents
obtained today through the FOIA request, which was filed on
April 25.

A Bloomberg News analysis showed federal agencies weren’t
complying with the 20-day deadline the law sets for agencies to
release requested information. Nineteen of 20 cabinet-level
agencies disobeyed the law requiring the disclosure of public
information in that time period.

Three of the four costliest VA events were for financial
management training. They included the most expensive
conference, a $6.3 million gathering in San Francisco in August
2010 attended by 1,360 employees, according to the VA records.

Nashville to Dallas

Coming in at No. 2 was a $5.8 million financial-training
conference in Nashville held in March-April 2011 with 1,480 VA
employees. A similar event in Dallas in December 2010 ranked No.
4, with a cost of about $4.4 million.

The VA spent $4.5 million on an April 2010 medical
conference in Las Vegas, the third most expensive event listed
in the department records.

The agency spent the most money on conferences in Las
Vegas, where it has hosted more than 50 events at a cost of at
least $27 million since 2005. Nashville came in second, with
more than 30 conferences totaling at least $15 million.

About 10 conferences were listed as costing zero dollars.
The VA’s FOIA office didn’t immediately provide an explanation.

The VA’s event scandal followed the backlash over a General
Services Administration conference in Las Vegas that cost more
than $826,000 and led to the resignation of GSA Administrator
Martha Johnson.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Danielle Ivory in Washington at
divory@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephanie Stoughton at
sstoughton@bloomberg.net