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B-103315 1 (1984-03-26)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadwbo0001 and id is 1 raw text is: pI1 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE -' Memorandum MAR 684 TO Comptroller GeneralIIIIIIIIIIIII III THRU General Counsel 1478 Director, NSIAD -7rank C. Conahan FROM : Should GAO Continue Its Ban on the Use of Commercial SUBJCT: Travel Agents by Government Travelers? (B-103315) For over a year now, NSIAD has been monitoring test programs being run by the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) to develop data on the feasibility of using commercial travel agents for official travel. As you know, we have long prohibited federal agencies and their employees from using travel agents in conjunction with travel within or from the United States. The prohibition dates back to 1899 when the Treasury, then responsible for transporta- tion procurement documentation, directed agencies to place their transportation demands directly with transportation companies. The implication in those instructions was that agencies were not to deal with any noncompany agent, such as a travel agent. Our legal decisions, beginning in 1952, and regulations (4 C.F.R. 52.3) since 1955 have continued that direction. Many reasons have been cited in support of our prohibition. Most have centered on the belief that having the government rely on travel agents would create administrative problems, such as maintaining fairness in distributing the business among the thousands of potential firms wanting a share of government business and ensuring the government was not overcharged. Also, there was doubt that travel agents could stay in business han- dling government accounts since the airlines had long taken the position they would not pay commissions to agents on government business and the government was not planning to pay any more for tickets through agents than what it was already paying the air- lines directly. There was a fear that if the airlines did pay commissions, they would raise their fares to recover the cost of commissions or stop offering government discounts. Maintaining the prohibition has kept us in the middle of a controversy--the travel agent industry and congressional small business interests on one side and the airlines and their trade association (the Air Transport Association of America (ATA)) on i lV T (Z-

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