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GAO-08-85R 1 (2007-11-19)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptavvl0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Sai Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 November 19, 2007 The Honorable Charles Conner Acting Secretary of Agriculture Subject: Management Letter: Recommendations for Improvements to USDA's Internal Controls and Policies on Premium Class Air Travel Dear Mr. Conner: At the request of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, in September 2007 we reported on the governmentwide use of premium class travel'. As part of the audit and related investigations, we tested premium class transactions at the Department of Agriculture (USDA). The purpose of this letter is to provide you with information on specific matters identified during our work that relate to weaknesses in internal controls at USDA. Further, this letter details the results of investigative work we performed related to allegations forwarded to us by USDA's Office of Inspector General of premium class travel abuses by executives at the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). This letter contains six recommendations that warrant your attention. Results in Brief We found that USDA spent over $110 million in air travel from July 1, 2005, through September 30, 2006, of which about $3.9 million included at least one leg of a premium class flight. Overall, the percentage of USDA flights in premium class was less than the overall governmentwide average of 7 percent. However, we found that FAS used premium class travel nearly 30 percent of the time and accounted for the majority of USDA's premium class travel, due in part to policies and procedures that were more permissive than USDA departmentwide policies. Other issues of significance included the following: 0 USDA, and its component organizations, did not track premium class travel other than first class. Consequently, USDA and its component organizations were not aware of the magnitude of premium class travel by department or by component 'GAO, Premium Class Travel: Internal Control Weaknesses Governmentwide Led to Improper and Abusive Use of Premium Class Travel, GAO-07-1268 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 28, 2007). GAO-08-85R USDA Premium Class Travel

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