This has not been a good week so far for the leader of the General Services Administration. Additional information on problems at GSA have catapulted Administrator Lurita Doan back into the headlines - and the news isn't good. First up, Federal Times reported yesterday that the Office of Special Counsel has concluded in a forthcoming report that Doan violated the Hatch Act - a federal law that prohibits federal employees from partisan political activities while on the job. Apparently Doan participated in a January 26 lunch meeting with other political appointees where Scott Jennings, the White House deputy director of political affairs, gave a PowerPoint presentation that included slides listing Democratic and Republican seats the White House viewed as vulnerable in 2008, a map of contested Senate seats and other information on 2008 election strategy. Doan made statements at that meeting about trying to use GSA resources to help "our candidates." Doan has until June 1 to respond to the report before it is made public, after which the report will be sent on to the president with recommendations that could include suspension or termination. As if this wasn't bad enough for Doan, the Washington Post published a superb article on problems with contracting policies at the GSA that are costing the Federal government hundreds of millions of dollars every year. The key passage from the article: "This has been a scandal of great proportions," said David E. Cooper, until recently the director of acquisition and sourcing management at the Government Accountability Office, the investigative branch of Congress. "Our work and the work by the Defense Department inspector general and the GSA inspector general all show hundreds of millions, if not billions, that has been wasted." While this issue may be larger than Doan, it surfaced because of reports that Doan used her influence last summer as GSA Administrator to renew a contract with Sun Microsystems despite the fact that many within the GSA had evidence that the company was significantly over charging the government. Despite ample evidence that Sun had not only over charged the government in the past, but would continue to over charge if the contract was renewed, Doan pushed to finalize the new contract. In fact, senior GSA officials went through three different contracting officers (Herman S. Caldwell Jr., then Mike Butterfield, and finally Shana Budd) before negotiations on the contract could be finalized. It is unclear if Doan had any direct involvement with those personnel changes, but it is clear that the first two officers had serious reservations about moving forward with the contract that Doan seems to have ignored. Like any good Bush Administration appointee, Doan is unapologetic and claims no responsibility for inappropriate, unethical or illeagal behavior. She testified in March of this year that the agency made a good decision on behalf of taxpayers by renewing the contract with Sun Microsystems.