Federal Workers At Their Best
Why aren’t these people finding their paychecks docked?
Federal employees are routinely abusing rules on business-class travel, taking trips to destinations like Zurich for $7,500 and costing taxpayers an extra estimated $145 million annually, congressional investigators have found. The improper use of premium-class travel is widespread at a half-dozen federal departments, including Agriculture, Treasury, Commerce and State, according to the Government Accountability Office report.
The investigators found very few first-class flights, which fall under even stricter rules. But they concluded that about 65% of the overall premium flights — or about $146 million worth — were improper or abusive, meaning either they broke the rules or were not appropriately authorized. That travel represents just 1 percent of overall flights, but it consumes 7 percent of the dollars spent on air travel because business class costs on average five times more than coach. That’s hardly a drop in the bucket compared to the everyday waste federal agencies go through.
