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Tub of trouble for GSA honcho over Vegas ba$h

BILL OUR UNCLE SAM: Deborah and Jeff Neely live it up at the Las Vegas M Resort in 2009 while scouting it out for the scandalous GSA conference.

BILL OUR UNCLE SAM: Deborah and Jeff Neely live it up at the Las Vegas M Resort in 2009 while scouting it out for the scandalous GSA conference.

WASHINGTON – Now he’s really in hot water!

Jeff Neely, the federal official at the center of a Wild Las Vegas spending scandal, took the Fifth Amendment before a House committee yesterday after photos surfaced showing him relaxing in a hot tub there on the taxpayer’s dime. Neely, a commissioner with the General Services Administration, orchestrated the lavish $823,000 Las Vegas conference in 2010 that resembled a Roman feast of endlessly flowing, taxpayer-paid booze, sumptuous meals and an assembly line of entertainment jesters that included a clown, a mind reader and comedian.

The somber Neely wasn’t in a party mood yesterday, sitting stoically at the witness table and asserting his constitutional right against self-incrimination as the chief investigator of the boondoggle told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that he has asked the Justice Department to look into criminal charges.

The committee released e-mails in which the brazen Neely, who earns $179,000 a year and is still being paid on administrative leave, flaunted his position as a regional commissioner and even invited friends to share in the taxpayer extravagance at the M Resort Spa and Casino, where the hot-tub photos — which first emerged on ABC News — were taken in 2009 while he took an advance trip there with his wife to check it out.

“If you come, we typically host a nice happy hour in my suite one night (with u and the boys as part of it). I know. I am bad. But as deb and I say often, why not enjoy it while we have it and while we can. Aint going to last forever,” Neely wrote, referring to his wife.

Committee members blasted a panel of four former GSA executives, with several shouting red-faced in outrage. Rep. Elijah Cummins (D-Md.) said Neely and his aides treated themselves like royalty using taxpayer money to bankroll their lifestyle.

“They disregarded one of the most basic tenets of government service — it’s not your money; it’s the taxpayers’ money,” Cummings said. “Well, Mr. Neely, it stops now.”

Neely slinked away from the witness table with his attorney in tow after refusing to answer questions from committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). Committee members also tore into former GSA Administrator Martha Johnson for giving Neely a $9,000 raise.

Neely directed his “over the top” conference, spending $130,000 for workers to scout the site and then wasting $6,200 on commemorative coins, hosting a five-figure reception and paying $75,000 for a team bicycle-building exercise.

Johnson, who resigned over the scandal, said the annual gathering was well out of control by the time she took office in 2010, calling the Western Regions Conference “a raucous, extravagant, arrogant, self-congratulatory event.”

Agency Inspector General Brian Miller has alerted the Justice Department over possible federal contracting violations. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) said committee evidence showed that organizers may have tipped off one contractor about a competitor’s bid.

“That sounds remarkably criminal to me,” Gowdy said.

Transcripts from investigator interviews show that Neely was confronted about his party e-mail, and he acknowledged it looked suspicious but insisted he was holding an awards ceremony.

“I get it that it looks funny,” Neely said.

Top photo: Reuters (right)