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Event Planners Go Green in Edmonton

FRESH Edmonton Gives Event Planners Ways to Go Green in Alberta

New Edmonton meetings and conferences initiative by Edmonton hospitality industry offers planners everything from a Green Meetings User Guide and Eco Report Cards to local culture and food ideas to help enrich the visitor experience

February 4, 2010 – EDMONTON, AB — Event and meeting hosts can find information and ideas at FRESH Edmonton, a new initiative by Edmonton’s hospitality industry that addresses changing needs in conference planning while assisting those who wish to add environmental and cultural components to their events.

Host organizations want their events to reflect values such as community and environmental responsibility. Guests want to do more than fly in and out for meetings. They want to experience the flavour of the city: Edmonton’s galleries and museums, its festivals and cosmopolitan culture, the fresh air and green spaces, world-class shopping and uniquely Canadian historical attractions such as Fort Edmonton Park.

FRESH Edmonton was developed specifically for meeting planners by Edmonton

Tourism, the Shaw Conference Centre and industry partners. Event planners can:

· Reduce the environmental impact of their Edmonton meeting or conference with our Green Meetings User Guide, which is full of great ideas to help green their event, such as recycling paper and cardboard, shopping locally for services and entertainment and going digital to reduce the use of printed materials.

· Our Eco Report Card allows organizers to accurately measure and compare the environmental impact of their events.

· Choose a menu featuring foods grown on Alberta farms and prepared in tantalizing new ways by chefs from around the world.

· Reduce waste through recycling and composting.

· Put nature on the program with an event in North America’s largest urban park network, such as a skating party or a guided run through the River Valley.

· Incorporate rich cultural life into the Edmonton event planning. For example, consider holding a session in the spectacular new Art Gallery of Alberta.

· Edmonton Festival City in a Box can assist planners wishing to invite performers from one of the city’s famous festivals to entertain guests.

The FRESH Edmonton initiative is sponsored by the city’s hospitality industry. Partners include the Shaw Conference Centre, Edmonton Tourism, Northlands, the University of Alberta, plus the Westin, Sutton Place, Fairmont Macdonald and Delta South Edmonton hotels.

Visit FRESH Edmonton at http://www.edmonton.com/fresh.

About Edmonton Tourism
Edmonton Tourism promotes Greater Edmonton as the destination of choice for tourism, conventions, major events and film production and is a division of Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC). Learn more about Edmonton through the stories of people who’ve experienced it at www.edmontonstories.ca.

Contact Information
Jenifer Christenson
Executive Director, External Relations
Edmonton Economic Development Corporation/Edmonton Tourism
Edmonton, Alberta T5J 1P7
Tel: 780.917.7890
Email: jchristenson@edmonton.com

Edwards Florist of Northbrook and Caterer Casual Gourmet Invite Businesses …

“We want to get to know the North Shore business community the way we know the rest of the community” – Bill Dvorak, Co-Owner Edwards Florist of Northbrook

Northbrook, IL (PRWEB) June 13, 2013

Edwards Florist of Northbrook is hosting two open houses to reintroduce itself to business and the local community as it marks its first year under the new ownership of entrepreneurs Jim Fauerbach and Bill Dvorak.

The first Edwards Florist of Northbrook open house will be held on Thursday, June 20, from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. and is open to members of the Chicago and North Shore business community including executives, restaurateurs, hoteliers, venue managers, wedding consultants and all area meetings and event planners. “We want to get to know the North Shore business community the way we know the rest of the community. Our goal is to grow our meetings, events and corporate business,” says Edwards Florist of Northbrook co-owner Bill Dvorak. “As business people ourselves, we understand what it takes to be great business-to-business partners. Whether you’re an event planner, facilities manager, wedding consultant, realtor or restaurateur, Edwards Florist of Northbrook has the one-of-a-kind floral design, business acumen and the customer service to meet and exceed your customers’ expectations.”

The second open house will take place on Saturday, June 22, from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. and is intended for residents of Northbrook and surrounding North Shore communities. “This is our chance to say thank you to our many long-standing Edwards Florist of Northbrook customers,” notes co-owner Jim Fauerbach. “And it’s an opportunity to invite residents of Northbrook and the North Shore area to get to know us even better… to meet our employees and see firsthand the kinds of floral designs, customer service and gifts that make us unique.”

Chef Andrew Brodell of Northbrook caterer Casual Gourmet is partnering with Edwards Florist of Northbrook to provide food and drinks for both open houses. Inspired by Amy Stewart’s best-selling book, The Drunken Botanist, Chef Andrew notes, “ The botanical theme allows us to have some fun with all of the delicious seasonal ingredients currently available at market. And the idea of partnering with Edwards Florist of Northbrook was a natural. We local businesses have to support each other… and our communities.”

Each event will include raffle prizes and/or other giveaways including tickets to sporting events, copies of The Drunken Botanist, manicures and pedicures. Each Edwards Florist of Northbrook open house guest will receive a complimentary potted herb.

Edwards Florist of Northbrook is located at 1353 Shermer Road in Northbrook, IL.

Phone: (847) 272-4344. Additional information may be found at http://www.edwardsflorist.com and on Facebook.

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Hawaii hotels among 100 most popular resorts for corporate event planners

The Grand Wailea, seen here in this file photo, was among six Maui hotels on a list of the 100 most popular resorts based on booking activity and other data in the marketplace by Cvent Supplier Network.

Stephanie Silverstein
Reporter- Pacific Business News

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Nine Hawaii hotels have been named to a list of the 100 most popular resorts based on booking activity and other data in the marketplace by Cvent Supplier Network, an online marketplace for connecting corporate event planners and venues.

The state has been trying to build its meetings, conventions and incentives business with the introduction of Meet Hawaii, the state’s effort to reinforce the Hawaiian Islands’ brand as a world-class destination for hosting business meetings, conventions and incentives programs.

Cvent Supplier Network qualified properties based on a combination of metrics and third party review scores, including amenities, meeting space and number of meeting rooms, number of guest rooms and the volume of meetings and room nights booked.

The top 100 were named out of a list of 3,500 venues, and were not ranked within the top 100.

Of the Hawaiian Islands, Maui had the highest number of hotels named to the list, with six earning a spot. They are: Grand Wailea, A Waldorf Astoria Resort; Fairmont Kea Lani Maui; Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea; The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua; Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa; and The Westin Maui Resort Spa, Kaanapali.

The Big Island, Oahu and Kauai were represented on the list with one hotel each: Fairmont Orchid Hawaii on the Big Island; Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort on Oahu; and the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa on Kauai.

Stephanie Silverstein covers tourism, retail and money for Pacific Business News.

Report shows lavish spending at IRS conference

Updated 3:44 p.m. ET Tuesday 6/4

(CNN) – The Internal Revenue Service spent millions of taxpayer dollars on everything from event planners’ commissions to speakers’ fees to guest prizes to parody videos at a 2010 conference, an audit of the agency shows.

The beleaguered agency – already snared in controversy over its targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status – spent $4.1 million on a 2010 conference in Anaheim, California, with “questionable expenses” comprising much of the budget, according to the report released Tuesday by the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration.

The audit notes that a large chunk of that money – about $3.2 million – came from unused funds allocated for hiring. This was in the same year that the IRS began to single out conservative and tea party groups that sought tax-exempt office, in part because the agency said it did not have the personnel to handle the overwhelming amount of applications pouring in that year.

“Effective cost management is especially important given the current economic environment and focus on Government efficiency,” Inspector General J. Russell George said in a statement. “Certain of the IRS’s expenses associated with the Anaheim conference do not appear to be a good use of taxpayer funds.”

Read the audit report

The August 2010 conference, held by the Small Business/Self-Employed division, had 2,600 attendees at three hotels in Anaheim. The audit states that none of the guests were required to document their attendance at the training sessions.

While the division made 1,516 hires that year, not all of them were on board the full year, so the division used the unused money for the three-day conference. Managers also indicated the used additional training funds for the event.

The audit notes that the IRS–a stickler for record keeping–could only provide documentation for $4.1 million. The division estimated it actually spent $4,297,285, but could not source that additional amount, according to the report.

The IRS used event planners instead of IRS employees or contractors to set up the conference, giving no incentive to get lower rates and leaving the government to pay $135 per night for all rooms. Instead of working for favorable room rates, both event planners got $66,500 in commission from the hotels, according to the audit.

Other expenses included more than $135,000 on outside speakers–including a $17,000 fee for a speaker who created paintings on stage to make his point that one must free “the thought process to find creative solutions to challenges.”

“The speaker created six paintings at these two keynote sessions (three at each session). These paintings consisted of the following portraits: Albert Einstein (one); Michael Jordan (one); Abraham Lincoln (one); U2 singer Bono (one); and the Statute of Liberty (two),” the audit states.

While two of the paintings were given away at the conference and three were donated, one was reported lost.

The IRS also paid $11,400 to a speaker who specializes in happiness and positive psychology. He led four 90-minute workshops.

Another speaker received $27,500 for two hour-long speeches. The speaker’s fee included a $2,500 flight in first class.

The presentation was based on the speaker’s published book and, according to the contract, the speaker was to “share how seemingly random combinations of ideas can drive radical innovations.”

On a somewhat ironic note, one of the sessions in the programs lists a speech given by IRS speakers titled: “Political Savvy: How Not to Shoot Yourself in the Foot.”

In other expenses, IRS employees doled out $35,800 on three planning trips before the conference.

Forty-five employees who lived in the local area got to stay in the hotels and received daily per diems, amounting to more than $30,000 total.

And attendees got numerous gifts and promotional items from conference organizers–totaling more than $64,000. This included imprinted bags, imprinted hard-covered journals, lanyards, travel mugs, picture frames, and various promotion items, according to the audit.

Some attendees were also given Los Angeles Angels baseball tickets as contest prizes, which the division said came as a donation from the hotels.

At the three hotels, 132 suite upgrades were provided each night of the conference, representing nearly 5% of the 2,830 rooms booked. The upgrades ranged from $299 to $1,000 per night.

The hotels provided 10 free rooms each night, which were used by paid speakers and non-IRS support staff, according to the audit. Two of the event planners were given free rooms for 19 nights.

While attendees received a daily $71 per diem, they were also given two free drink coupons, daily continental breakfasts, and beverages and snacks during breaks.

The SB/SE division spent more than $50,000 on videos for the conference. One of the videos, CNN has reported, had a Star-Trek theme, while the other was a parody on IRS employees learning how to do the Cupid Shuffle dance.

Because the IRS did not keep track of all expenses for the videos, the inspector general’s office estimates that it took 62 staff hours to produce the piece at a minimum hourly rate of $50.

While the focus of the audit was on the 2010 conference, the inspector general looked at all IRS conferences between 2010 and 2012, finding that the agency held 225 conferences during that time at an estimated cost of $49 million. Nearly $38 million of that came in 2010 alone.

The inspector general’s office said it made nine recommendations to the IRS for future conferences, and the agency agreed to all nine.

Responding to the report, the IRS maintained that the 2010 conference was needed to make sure managers had proper training for “significant new programs, major staff and manager turnover and a substantial increase in security threats.”

The Small Business/Self-Employed division amounts to nearly one-third of the agency’s total work force, and at the time of the 2010 conference, almost 30% of the division’s managers had been hired in the prior two years.

However, acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, who was appointed last month after his predecessor stepped down amid scandal, said in a statement that the 2010 conference was an “unfortunate vestige from a prior era” and such a conference would not take place today.

“I will continue my efforts and ensure tight spending protocols are in place to protect the use of taxpayer dollars,” he said.

According to the official IRS response, written by IRS chief financial officer Pamela LaRue, the agency had already put in place an “extensive series of procedures” and has “dramatically cut” expenses for conferences since 2010. For example, LaRue notes, all conferences must now be approved centrally rather than by individual units at the IRS.

The number of large meetings decreased by 84% and the costs for those meetings decreased by 87% by 2012, LaRue writes. The IRS predicts costs for 2013 will be even lower.

Travel and training expenses are also down by more than 80%, according to the IRS. The agency now does 90% of its training hours online–nearly double the amount from 2010.

“The IRS takes seriously our obligations to be good stewards of government resources,” LaRue writes, adding that the agency has reached $1 billion in savings since 2009.

As for the use of event planners and the receipt of room upgrades noted in the audit, LaRue says those items did not involve “any additional government resources.”

IRS officials will continue to make their case this week when they appear Thursday before the House Oversight and Government Reform.

Report shows lavish spending at IRS conference

Updated 3:44 p.m. ET Tuesday 6/4

(CNN) – The Internal Revenue Service spent millions of taxpayer dollars on everything from event planners’ commissions to speakers’ fees to guest prizes to parody videos at a 2010 conference, an audit of the agency shows.

The beleaguered agency – already snared in controversy over its targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status – spent $4.1 million on a 2010 conference in Anaheim, California, with “questionable expenses” comprising much of the budget, according to the report released Tuesday by the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration.

The audit notes that a large chunk of that money – about $3.2 million – came from unused funds allocated for hiring. This was in the same year that the IRS began to single out conservative and tea party groups that sought tax-exempt office, in part because the agency said it did not have the personnel to handle the overwhelming amount of applications pouring in that year.

“Effective cost management is especially important given the current economic environment and focus on Government efficiency,” Inspector General J. Russell George said in a statement. “Certain of the IRS’s expenses associated with the Anaheim conference do not appear to be a good use of taxpayer funds.”

Read the audit report

The August 2010 conference, held by the Small Business/Self-Employed division, had 2,600 attendees at three hotels in Anaheim. The audit states that none of the guests were required to document their attendance at the training sessions.

While the division made 1,516 hires that year, not all of them were on board the full year, so the division used the unused money for the three-day conference. Managers also indicated the used additional training funds for the event.

The audit notes that the IRS–a stickler for record keeping–could only provide documentation for $4.1 million. The division estimated it actually spent $4,297,285, but could not source that additional amount, according to the report.

The IRS used event planners instead of IRS employees or contractors to set up the conference, giving no incentive to get lower rates and leaving the government to pay $135 per night for all rooms. Instead of working for favorable room rates, both event planners got $66,500 in commission from the hotels, according to the audit.

Other expenses included more than $135,000 on outside speakers–including a $17,000 fee for a speaker who created paintings on stage to make his point that one must free “the thought process to find creative solutions to challenges.”

“The speaker created six paintings at these two keynote sessions (three at each session). These paintings consisted of the following portraits: Albert Einstein (one); Michael Jordan (one); Abraham Lincoln (one); U2 singer Bono (one); and the Statute of Liberty (two),” the audit states.

While two of the paintings were given away at the conference and three were donated, one was reported lost.

The IRS also paid $11,400 to a speaker who specializes in happiness and positive psychology. He led four 90-minute workshops.

Another speaker received $27,500 for two hour-long speeches. The speaker’s fee included a $2,500 flight in first class.

The presentation was based on the speaker’s published book and, according to the contract, the speaker was to “share how seemingly random combinations of ideas can drive radical innovations.”

On a somewhat ironic note, one of the sessions in the programs lists a speech given by IRS speakers titled: “Political Savvy: How Not to Shoot Yourself in the Foot.”

In other expenses, IRS employees doled out $35,800 on three planning trips before the conference.

Forty-five employees who lived in the local area got to stay in the hotels and received daily per diems, amounting to more than $30,000 total.

And attendees got numerous gifts and promotional items from conference organizers–totaling more than $64,000. This included imprinted bags, imprinted hard-covered journals, lanyards, travel mugs, picture frames, and various promotion items, according to the audit.

Some attendees were also given Los Angeles Angels baseball tickets as contest prizes, which the division said came as a donation from the hotels.

At the three hotels, 132 suite upgrades were provided each night of the conference, representing nearly 5% of the 2,830 rooms booked. The upgrades ranged from $299 to $1,000 per night.

The hotels provided 10 free rooms each night, which were used by paid speakers and non-IRS support staff, according to the audit. Two of the event planners were given free rooms for 19 nights.

While attendees received a daily $71 per diem, they were also given two free drink coupons, daily continental breakfasts, and beverages and snacks during breaks.

The SB/SE division spent more than $50,000 on videos for the conference. One of the videos, CNN has reported, had a Star-Trek theme, while the other was a parody on IRS employees learning how to do the Cupid Shuffle dance.

Because the IRS did not keep track of all expenses for the videos, the inspector general’s office estimates that it took 62 staff hours to produce the piece at a minimum hourly rate of $50.

While the focus of the audit was on the 2010 conference, the inspector general looked at all IRS conferences between 2010 and 2012, finding that the agency held 225 conferences during that time at an estimated cost of $49 million. Nearly $38 million of that came in 2010 alone.

The inspector general’s office said it made nine recommendations to the IRS for future conferences, and the agency agreed to all nine.

Responding to the report, the IRS maintained that the 2010 conference was needed to make sure managers had proper training for “significant new programs, major staff and manager turnover and a substantial increase in security threats.”

The Small Business/Self-Employed division amounts to nearly one-third of the agency’s total work force, and at the time of the 2010 conference, almost 30% of the division’s managers had been hired in the prior two years.

However, acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, who was appointed last month after his predecessor stepped down amid scandal, said in a statement that the 2010 conference was an “unfortunate vestige from a prior era” and such a conference would not take place today.

“I will continue my efforts and ensure tight spending protocols are in place to protect the use of taxpayer dollars,” he said.

According to the official IRS response, written by IRS chief financial officer Pamela LaRue, the agency had already put in place an “extensive series of procedures” and has “dramatically cut” expenses for conferences since 2010. For example, LaRue notes, all conferences must now be approved centrally rather than by individual units at the IRS.

The number of large meetings decreased by 84% and the costs for those meetings decreased by 87% by 2012, LaRue writes. The IRS predicts costs for 2013 will be even lower.

Travel and training expenses are also down by more than 80%, according to the IRS. The agency now does 90% of its training hours online–nearly double the amount from 2010.

“The IRS takes seriously our obligations to be good stewards of government resources,” LaRue writes, adding that the agency has reached $1 billion in savings since 2009.

As for the use of event planners and the receipt of room upgrades noted in the audit, LaRue says those items did not involve “any additional government resources.”

IRS officials will continue to make their case this week when they appear Thursday before the House Oversight and Government Reform.

Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas Offers Five-Star Service to Meeting and Event …

June 7, 2013

Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas is offering a Five Star Meetings package to meeting and event planners. In honor of the property’s Forbes Triple Five-Star award for the hotel, The Spa and Twist by Pierre Gagnaire, the Five Star Meetings offer will help meeting planners set up their events in true Vegas (and Mandarin Oriental) style.

Five Star Meetings includes five room upgrades to suites, five in-room welcome amenities, five airport transfers, five Tian Quan Thermal Spa experiences and USD 5 per person credit to the Master account. Professional services are available at Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas, as hotel staff helps with choosing the venue on property, to designing and providing menus to meeting guests.

Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas received three Forbes Five-Star ratings for the second consecutive year, the only resort in Nevada with this rating. Two years after its, Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas was named a triple Five-Star award winner in 2011.

To qualify for the Five Star Meetings offer, functions must be conducted between now and Sept. 15, 2013. Five Star Meetings cannot be combined with any other offers, promotions or existing agreements. Blackout dates apply.

For information, call the hotel’s sales department at (702) 590 3350 or email molas-sales@mohg.com.

Related Links :

Tropicana Las Vegas to Expand Meetings and Event Space

New Hi-Density Wi-Fi at Las Vegas Resorts Supports 120,000 Users

Caesars Entertainment, Victor Drai, and Gansevoort Announce New Las Vegas Luxury Hotel

Weather forces event planners to make adjustments – Meriden Record

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Christopher Zajac

Weather forces event planners to make adjustments

The Holy Trinity bazaar in Wallingford was shut down by the heavy rain Friday night. The carnival is scheduled to open today at 2 p.m.

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Posted: Friday, June 7, 2013 11:35 pm
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Updated: 11:38 pm, Fri Jun 7, 2013.

Weather forces event planners to make adjustments

Eric Heredia and Lauren Sievert

Record-Journal

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Local fire departments reported no major flood-related incidents Friday night as a post tropical storm moved along the East Coast.

There was a motor vehicle accident in the area of 124 N. Wall St. at 8 p.m. Extrication was necessary, but fire officials had no further information Friday.

Meriden Police Sgt. Jeff Herget said he expected to have more weather-related incidents, but it was pretty quiet as of 9:50 p.m. There were a couple of puddles, but no roads closed due to flooding, Herget said.

By 8 p.m., 2 inches of rain had fallen on the state, said Gary Lessor, assistant to the director of meteorological studies at Western Connecticut State University.

“We could see another 1 to 2 inches in the next six hours or so,” Lessor said. He expected heavy rain to continue until 2 to 4 a.m. today. He wasn’t worried about the winds being too strong.

The second weekend in June is a popular time for outdoor festivals, fairs and community tag sales. With a packed schedule in local towns, many event planners needed to decide how to proceed.

The Connecticut Law Enforcement Torch Run for the Special Olympics was canceled. The run was scheduled to go through Southington and Cheshire on Friday. It was rescheduled to a modified run for later Friday night at Southern Connecticut State University, the site of the 2013 Special Olympics Summer Games for Connecticut.

The Cheshire Relay for Life kicked off outdoors at 6 p.m. Friday at Cheshire High School despite the rain. Normally run through the night, the event was cut short at 11 p.m. and will resume today at 8 a.m. The closing ceremony will be held at noon.

St. Stanislaus Church in Meriden has its annual Polish Festival this weekend, and planned to go ahead with activities despite the weather. Tents will be utilized if the weather is too severe, according to school officials.

St. Joseph School in Meriden has a tag sale planned for today from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and school officials said if its pouring rain, the event will be moved into the church hall.

Holy Trinity Church in Wallingford canceled its annual bazaar Friday. The event is scheduled to resume from to 2 to 10 p.m. today.

“Anything scheduled tonight should be canceled,” Lessor said Friday. “There will be very heavy rain this evening and tonight. It’s going to be miserable.”

Lessor said the rain will taper off Saturday morning and it will get warmer, with highs forecast to be in the 70s.

More about Weather

• ARTICLE: Flash flood watch in effect today, effecting some outdoor events
• ARTICLE: Serious about flood control
• ARTICLE: Thunderstorms and heavy rain in the forecast today
• ARTICLE: Air quality alert issued for today

More about Meriden Connecticut

• ARTICLE: Readers’ Opinions, 5-16-2013
• ARTICLE: Readers’ Opinions, 5-15-2013
• ARTICLE: Campership Fund
• ARTICLE: Readers’ Opinions, 5-4-2013
• ARTICLE: Winners and Losers, 5-4-2013

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IRS Violated Procedures, Spent Millions On Conferences, Failed To Track …

A Treasury Inspector General report revealed the IRS failed to follow procedures and track expenses while spending millions of dollars on conferences.

A new inspector general report reveals that the IRS spent millions of dollars on conferences, failed to track and account for expenses, and outsourced conference planning to non-governmental event planners who were paid commissions based on room rates.

While the IRS has claimed that their targeting of conservative and tea party groups was in part due to their lack of personnel capable of handling the overwhelming amount of applications received in 2010, this IG report reveals that to pay for conferences the IRS transferred $3.2 million from hiring to conference expenses.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (IG)’s audit was triggered after the IG received an allegation that a conference held in Anaheim, California may have involved excessive spending.  As a result, the IG audited all conferences held by the IRS in FY 2010, finding 225 conferences for a total estimated cost of $49 million.  The top three conferences based on estimated cost were an Anaheim conference for $4,133,183, a Philadelphia conference for $2,933,042 and a San Diego conference for $1,198, 397.  Their report focused specifically on IRS practices related to the Anaheim conference.

Amazingly, while the IRS requires documentation for nearly every expense a taxpayer claims on their taxes, the IRS itself failed to account for or track many of the expenses related to their conference.  Specifically, the IG found:

• “While IRS management provided documentation showing the total final costs at $4.1 million, we could not obtain reasonable assurance that this amount represents a full and accurate accounting of the conference costs. The IRS was unable to provide documentation to support all costs associated with the conference.”
• The IRS spent $50,187 on “videos” however when asked about what those costs were for “IRS management stated that this was an estimated cost and could not provide detail on how this cost was estimated. In addition, IRS management could not provide any supporting documentation detailing how this money was spent.”
• “At the time the Anaheim conference was planned and conducted, the IRS did not have any guidelines requiring management to track and report the actual costs incurred for conferences.”
• “IRS management originally estimated that 2,609 employees were expected to attend the conference…[while] management stated that the cost for all employee travel was $3,752,000.”  However the IG “reviewed travel voucher documentation and identified that 2,547 vouchers were filed by IRS employees claiming approximately $3,845,000 associated with the conference.”

The IG also found that the IRS did not follow established guidelines when selecting Anaheim as the conference location.  The IG found:

• “The process followed by IRS management to identify Anaheim as the conference location did not follow established procedures and may not have resulted in the most cost-effective site being identified for the conference. Specifically, IRS management did not use available internal personnel to assist in searching for the most cost-effective location as required.”
• Despite not following procedures or seeking the least expensive location, six employees were paid bonus awards totaling $6,000, with two employees receiving $2,000 each.
• The IRS has an internal office known as Centralized Delivery Services (CDS) responsible for coordinating conferences and identifying cost-effective facilities.  The IRS circumvented this office and instead “relied on non-governmental event planners who were not under contract with the IRS and who were selected based on past relationships with the IRS to identify possible off-site locations.”
• The non-governmental event planners “had no contractual agreement with these two individuals. IRS procedures currently require background investigations and tax compliance checks be performed on contractors doing business with the IRS. However, because the IRS had no contractual agreement with these event planners, the IRS did not perform background or tax compliance checks on these two individuals.”
• Rather than paying the event planners directly, the IRS allowed them to be “paid a 5 percent commission directly by the hotels based on the number of rooms used by the IRS for the conference.”  The commission totaled $133,000 ($66,500 per planner).
• “The use of the planners in this process increased the possibility that the site selection did not result in the lowest cost to the Government. For example, the event planners had no incentive to negotiate a lower Government room rate at any conference location because they were directly compensated based on the room rate.” The IG questioned whether expenses could have been lower if the non-governmental event planners had not been used, finding that the “hotels’ willingness to pay a commission to the planners indicates that additional room discounts may have been available to the IRS. An IRS Procurement Officer advised us that the IRS has previously been able to negotiate lower room rates, below per diem,8 when a large number of rooms were reserved at one time. In addition, a national sales representative for Hilton Hotels and Resorts stated that they would negotiate room rates lower than the Government per diem depending on the number of rooms, location, and time of year.”

Other questionable practices and spending included:

• The production of a “Star Trek Parody and SB/SE Shuffle video” for which the IRS did not track specific costs. However as a result of the IG audit, it was determined that $50,187 were spent on videos including: $2,400 to construct a set at the IRS’ television studio (yes, the IRS has a television studio), 62 staff hours to produce the Star Trek video at a rate of $50.00 per hour, and an additional $1,591 in staff time to produce the “SB/SE shuffle” video.  These costs were IG estimates because the IRS failed to track and account for their expenditures.
• Spending $27,500 for an artist to paint portraits.
• A substantial number of IRS employees received hotel upgrades, including the Deputy Commissioner who “stayed five nights in a two-bedroom Presidential Suite at the Hilton. The IRS paid the standard per diem rate of $135 per night for the room, which would have normally cost guests $1,499 per night during a four night stay.”  The “room is described as having a private bedroom, living area, conference table, wet bar, and billiard table…. [and] currently retails for $3,500 per night.”  The IG noted that “[b]ecause these free rooms and upgrades were part of the Letters of Intent with the hotels, they are not gifts to employees. However, the solicitation and use of hotel room upgrades increases the perception of wasteful spending and should be carefully considered in the future.”
• 38 local employees stayed at the conference hotel and incurred per diem expenses of $29,364.  The IG subsequently found an additional seven employees who stayed at other Anaheim hotels totaling $4,816 that the IRS failed to report to the IG.
• Despite per diem expenses being taxable, the IRS failed to issue W2 forms to some employees.  Specifically, the IG noted “[b]ecause per diem expenses are taxable to the employees in the local commuting area, we asked the IRS to identify the employees who received a Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, reporting the taxable per diem. IRS management informed us that four of the 38 employees they knew had performed local travel were not issued a Form W-2 as required. In addition, IRS management agreed that two of the seven additional employees we identified incurred taxable travel expenses and were not issued Forms W-2.”
• The IRS spent $15,669 on “brief bags” for all attendees, $19,210 on lanyards, travel mugs, and picture frames/clocks with IRS logos, and an additional $27,000 on pens, badge holders, imprinted can coolers/post-it notes and other promotional items.

The full report is available for download here.

Gregory S. McNeal is a professor specializing in law and public policy.  You can follow him on Twitter @GregoryMcNeal.