Inspector general Brian Miller, responding to a question at the hearing, said, "We do have other ongoing investigations, including all sorts of improprieties, including bribes, including possible kickbacks."
Jeffrey Neely, who asserted his Fifth Amendment privilege before the committee, has been placed on leave as a regional executive in Western states.
Neely, summoned before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, could face a criminal investigation by the Justice Department - where his case was referred by the inspector general.
Neely was largely responsible for an $823,000 Las Vegas conference in 2010 that was the focus of Miller's report. Three other congressional committees also are looking at the conference spending and a culture of waste at the agency in charge of federal buildings and supplies
"Mr. Chairman, on advice of counsel I decline to answer based on my constitutional privilege," Neely said in response to questions from chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. The conference was the subject of a highly critical report by Miller issued on April 2. Taxpayers picked up the tab for a clown, a mind-reader, bicycles for a team-building exercise.
9Wants to Know learned federal workers from Colorado attended the now-controversial GSA) event in Las Vegas.
"The OIC found that many of the expenditures on this conference were excessive and wasteful, and that in many instances, GSA followed neither federal-procurement laws nor its own policy on conference spending," the Inspector General report released on April 2, 2012 said.
The GSA spokesman says it does not have figures for how much of the $822,751 was spent by Colorado employees. A total of 52 Colorado employees were at the conference.
Colorado is one of the states that makes up the General Service Administration's Rocky Mountain Region 8. Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming are the other states.
Regions 7, 8, 9 and 10 attended the conference, 9Wants to Know has learned.
The report says some conference participants were treated to catered, in-room parties costing $5,600 each, $44-per person daily breakfasts and closing reception dinners for $95 per person.
The Inspector General says conference planners were told to make the conference "over the top."
"Several suggestions to minimize expenses were ignored," the report said.
Martha Johnson, who resigned as chief of the agency after the inspector general's report was issued this month, said the Western Regions Conference "had evolved into a raucous, extravagant, arrogant, self-congratulatory event."
"I personally apologize to the American people for the entire situation. As the head of the Agency, I am responsible. I deeply regret that the exceedingly good work of GSA has been besmirched. I will mourn for the rest of my life the loss of my appointment and its role in leading a vital and important part of the government of the United States of America," Johnson said in a statement on Monday.
Johnson, whom lawmakers accused of sitting on the findings for 11 months after receiving an interim briefing from the inspector general, apologized "to the American people for the entire situation.
"As the head of the agency, I am responsible. I deeply regret that the exceedingly good work of GSA has been besmirched. I will mourn for the rest of my life the loss of my appointment."
Previously, Neely had told inspector general investigators that a $2,700 party he threw in his Las Vegas hotel suite was an employee-awards event, according to a transcript of the interview.
"This is an award recognition ceremony ...." Neely insisted to an internal investigator. "That's what this was. That's...not a Neely party right. I actually...it was in a suite that wasn't even mine."
The investigator then confronted Neely with his email saying that he and his wife "are hosting a party in our loft room. There will be wine and beer and some munchies...." There was no mention of awards.
When Neely insisted again it was an awards event, the skeptical investigator told him, "You realize how this looks?"
"I get it that it looks funny," Neely said.
The inspector general has referred Neely to the Justice Department for a possible criminal investigation, according to a congressional committee official who was not authorized to be quoted by name on the subject.
It was not clear what the department was asked to investigate.
Neely, on leave as regional commissioner of the Public Buildings Service for the Pacific Rim, was largely responsible for the Las Vegas conference.
The Oversight Committees released internal memos that showed GSA officials debated last year whether to give Neely a bonus for his job performance. The officials were aware at the time that the inspector general was investigating the conference spending.
The now-resigned GSA administrator, Martha Johnson, granted Neely a $9,000 bonus over the objection of Deputy Administrator Susan Brita.
Brita wrote in a November 2011 email, that "based on what we know already" about the conference and a questionable awards program, "I would not recommend a bonus."
Johnson wrote in an email, "yes on a bonus" in part because Neely had to serve in an acting capacity "forever and a day."
(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation with The Associated Press)