Leaders of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee said they are probing spending at 153 conferences hosted by 11 agencies since 2005. DOD ran 64.

The panelists said those events exceeded the per-person costs of the General Services Administration event in Las Vegas in 2010 that sparked outrage earlier this year.

Also, the House Veterans Affairs Committee released an 18-minute VA training video costing $52,000 based on General Patton. The video surfaced in a review of two VA training events.

The VA disclosed it had sponsored 948 training conferences with more than 50 employees from January 2009 to June 2012. The department is advertising for a contractor that can analyze its conference planning and spending practices.

Homeland Security Department officials may revise their acquisition rules so that prime contractors do not score a bonanza in labor hour payments.

Under the plan, the Homeland Security Acquisition Regulation would be amended so that bids have to include separate labor hour rates for each prime contractor and subcontractor, according to a Federal Register notice.

The bids also would need to explain accounting for overtime labor.

DHS wants “to eliminate unintentional windfall payments to the prime contractor” that can come when work done by subcontractors is billed at the prime contractor’s labor rate, according to the notice. Comments are being accepted until Oct. 22.

For more information:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-08-21/html/2012-20442.htm

Federal efforts to support entrepreneurs are fragmented and overlapping, with 52 programs operating at four agencies, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

The GAO reviewed programs sponsored by USDA, Commerce, HUD and SBA.

Auditors found that 19 programs failed to meet their annual performance goals. Also, agencies lacked program evaluations for 32 of the 52 programs.

For more information:
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-819

A Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General audit found that Health Net Inc. improperly benefited from subcontracts with a sham veteran-owned small business.

Health Net allegedly encouraged a VA employee to set up Enterprise Technology Solutions, which won VA contracts valued at $82 million.

Enterprise performed little work and instead subcontracted the work to Health Net in violation of contracting rules, according to the report from the inspector general.

For more information:
http://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-12-01235-132.pdf