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GAO-10-677R 1 (2010-06-10)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaante0001 and id is 1 raw text is: i GA 0 A countabiity I Integity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 June 10, 2010 Congressional Requesters Subject: Selected Federal Agencies' Policies for Choosing Conference Locations Press accounts in 2009 indicated that some federal agencies had issued directives to their staff discouraging them from choosing certain locations for conferences. This was because of the perception by some that the locations were resort areas and would not be the best use of taxpayers' money. Noting that government travel for meetings, conferences, and seminars is an important source of economic activity for many communities throughout the United States, you asked us to review agencies' policies for selecting conference locations, in view of these concerns. This report transmits the results of our work which are contained in Enclosure I. Summary Conference planning at the 10 departments and 2 agencies' we reviewed is a decentralized activity that is typically performed at the bureau or component level, below the agencywide level. Budgetary considerations largely influence the agencies' conference location selections. For example, officials from most of the agencies we reviewed explained that after identifying locations that meet the requirements of a particular conference, such as the capacity for large numbers of attendees, the comparative cost of locations was the key criterion used for selecting a conference location. Eight of the 12 agencies that we reviewed had developed agencywide policies for conference planning; these policies were consistent with the governmentwide policy on conference planning in the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) ,2 and specified that conference locations be selected on the basis of cost- effectiveness. The other 4 agencies either allowed bureaus and components to develop their own policies, were in the process of developing agencywide policies, or conducted agency level review and approval of conferences that were proposed at the bureau or component level. While cost-effectiveness is the principal criterion and the selection of resort locations is not prohibited among the agencywide policies we reviewed, three agencies had policies that mentioned resort locations. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) policies currently state that the selection of resort locations for conferences and meetings is discouraged and should be minimized. 'For the purposes of this review, we will refer to these federal departments and agencies as federal agencies. 241 C.F.R. Part 301-74. GAO-10-677R Federal Conference Locations

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