DEA Treating Global Counterdrug Officials to Hawaiian Holiday
Posted by Stephen Peacock - March 8, 2006 at 3:19 pm
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has chosen Hawaii as the venue for its annual International Narcotics Enforcement Management Seminar, a 20-day conference that in the past had been held in Washington, D.C. According to a call for bids released yesterday, the State Dept.-funded event will take place at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu as well as at an unspecified hotel in Waikiki.
An earlier State Dept. counternarcotics budget report says the conference, which is conducted by the International Training Section of DEA, is geared for "upper-level law enforcement managers" from around the globe. Although the current bid request does not identify which nations will be represented at the event, it indicates that U.S. taxpayers will foot the bill for 12 hotel suites for unnamed VIPs from May 28 to June 16, when the event will conclude with a U.S. government-funded and catered "graduation dinner for approximately 40 people."
One of the requirements that DEA is imposing upon potential hotel contractors:
The participant's sleeping rooms must be executive rooms suitable for extended stay occupancy, complete with a double/king sized bed, desk, internet access, television, coffee maker, refrigerator, a microwave, a sitting area and bathroom.
The DEA document also reminded bidders that federal law exempts the U.S. Government from paying state and local taxes: "As an agency of the Federal Government, the Drug Enforcement Administration is exempt from state and local taxes, including hotel taxes when direct payments (electronic funds transfer) are made to the vendor by the Government (Unless otherwise prohibited)."
Bids are due March 7. The contracting document is scheduled to be archived (and, hence, not available via the embedded link) March 31.
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