GAO finds widespread air travel policy abuse by bureaucrats

An audit of federal travelers by the Government Accountability Office found that rules restricting the purchase of business- and first-class tickets are widely ignored, and that the higher up the official, the greater the likelihood for abuse. The GAO studied government purchases of 53,000 airline tickets that contained at least one leg of premium-class travel between July 2005 and June 2006, with a total price tag of $230 million. It determined that $146 million of that amount, or 63 percent, “was unauthorized or unjustified.” Federal rules specify when and where premium-class tickets are permitted; although different agencies have varying rules, many bar business-class or first-class travel unless the trip is more than 14 hours, with no chance to rest en route or upon arrival. The rules do not allow exemptions based on rank, and yet GAO found that “high-ranking officials, including senior career executives and presidential appointees, were using premium class travel at a higher rate than other federal employees.” Traveling bureaucrats came up with various ruses to go in the front cabin. For example, one Treasury official took 12 trips in premium class that were authorized by a subordinate; and one presidential appointee at the Defense Department claimed a medical condition was a special circumstance that required a better seat, even though he could not provide a note from a physician as required by the rules. The GAO concluded that most government agencies simply do not have the procedures in place – or the will – to follow government guidelines on spending taxpayer money for air travel.