House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) has uncovered more potentially illegal activity by the head of the General Services Administration, Lorita Doan. Waxman has discovered that Doan "used a January 2007 teleconference to ask senior GSA officials to help 'our candidates' in the next elections through targeted public events, such as the opening of federal facilities around the country." Doan's inappropriate behavior included exploring "how to exclude House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from an upcoming courthouse opening in San Francisco and how to include Republican Senator Mel Martinez." Previously, questions arose surrounding Doan's attempts to award a $20,000 non-competitive GSA contract to a firm headed by Edie Fraser, an individual with whom Doan has had a "long-standing," undisclosed business relationship. Rep. Waxman has since discovered that "Fraser used her professional connections to advance Doan's nomination to GSA and to provide personal favors, and ... Ms. Fraser continued to provide services with the expectation of payment to Ms. Doan after she became GSA Administrator."
Further, Waxman discovered that while Fraser's contract was eventually canceled because GSA regulations required all contracts over $2,500 to be competitively bid, Doan continued to pressure her staff "to find a way to award the contract to Ms. Fraser."
According to Waxman, Doan even went so far as to suggest "that if GSA were to make the contract available through a competitive bid, Ms. Fraser could write the 'Statement of Work' describing the award for which her company would be competing." Doan has dismissed Waxman's assertions as "scurrilous" personal attacks and said she would be "delighted to have the opportunity to set the record straight" when she appears before the House Oversight Committee on March 20.
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