Remember That $16 DOJ Muffin? Not So Fast.

Back in September, the U.S. Justice Department took a lot of heat for reportedly spending $16 on muffins at a conference.

The department's internal watchdog, the Office of the Inspector General, noted the $16 muffin price in a lengthy report that scrutinized DOJ conference expenses, right down to the cost-per-ounce of coffee.

Critics assailed the department for wasteful spending. A Washington Post reporter went on a hunt for a $16 muffin.

After the publication of the report, the Justice Department said it received more information about the food and beverage costs for the conference in question, held by the Executive Office for Immigration Review at the Capital Hilton. Hotel representatives at the time publicly denied the muffins were $16 each.

Now, the OIG has issued a revised report, striking the $16 muffin. The OIG’s explanation:

“After further review of the newly provided documentation and information, and after discussions with the Capital Hilton and the Department, we determined that our initial conclusions concerning the itemized costs of refreshments at the EOIR conference were incorrect. We therefore deleted references to any incorrect costs and revised the report based on these additional documents and information.”

Representatives from the hotel, according to the revised OIG report, produced documents that showed individual refreshment items were not as expensive as DOJ initially reported. Apparently DOJ investigators did not have those documents at the time the first audit was published.

The Executive Office for Immigration Review confirmed with the inspector general's office that it had the same documents the hotel had provided. "The EOIR stated it inadvertently did not produce these documents to us during the audit," according to the report.

Cynthia Schnedar, the acting inspector general, said in the preface of the newly revised expense report that “we hope our correction of the record” for one of 10 conferences included in the report “does not detract from the more significant conclusion” that DOJ expenses must be more carefully managed.

Comments

[yetisaurus]

Oops, I take it back. I was looking at the wrong conference. Page 60 of the pdf, page 32 of the numbered pages. $16.80 per person for breakfast which included pastries, juice, coffee, and presumably the muffins. That also included the hotel providing meeting space (although the hotel admitted that based on the number of rooms reserved at the hotel, it would have provided the meeting space for free, anyway).

[yetisaurus]

Looks like $5.33 for each muffin (p. 58 of the pdf), not counting the costs of the event planners, which seems to be a focal point for the report.

Either way, the point of the report is that they're spending way too much on food for these conferences. Based on my very brief review of the report, it looks like they're spending about as much as businesspeople would.

I don't think the amount they're spending is OK, but I think the participants at these conferences are going to need a big mental adjustment if the DOJ brings these expenses in line with what they're allowed to spend.

[Elizabeth Fleming]

Why does DOJ get to spend appropriated funds on food and drink in the first place? There are about a million rules against this. A million.

[Joey Bagdano]

Oh the government denies it...oh, then its ok nothing to see here move on. BTW, where did all that stimulus money go to anyways?

[Angela]

Well...How much were the muffins, then?

[Rtts]

Ugh. The central screw-up is OIG's first report. Anyone would know that excessive government spending is prime grist for the anti-government propaganda mill. Thus, any report on this subject should be fact checked multiple times even if that means going behind the figures fed to OIG. Once the story has been released it remains forever engrained in the minds of attack dog anti-govt types regardless of the truth. Yes, I know that they'll make up facts anyway, but why help them?

[Robert A.]

I think maybe people ought to have asked more questions before jumping to conclusions, is there really a $16 muffin anywhere in the US?
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