Tag Archives: OMB

Unintended consequences of limits on government travel

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Originally posted by  on The Washington Post

Concerned about government travel expenses? Here's a thought.

Slice agency budgets, across the board. Tell employees not to work one or two days a week. Don't pay them for that time. This recipe not only will reduce federal employee travel, it also will make an across-the-board cut in their morale and do a disservice to American taxpayers.

There is a better way to reduce government travel expenses, even if Congress can't find a better way to run the government than the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration,  which are set to take effect Friday.

But going too far, cutting too much travel spending in ways that aren't smart, can have unintended bad consequences -- witness the sequester.

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New GSA Offering Could Avert the Next Conference Scandal

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Originally posted by Joseph Marks on NextGov

The General Services Administration is considering building a menu of contractors offering services that can help agencies avoid the sort of conference spending scandals that rocked GSA itself in 2012, according to solicitation documents posted Tuesday.

Contractors listed on the menu would help centralize agencies' conference and meeting spending in unified databases, ensure competitive pricing for conference-related purchases, minimize the risk of cancellation fees from hotels and food vendors and archive important information to pass along to GSA and government watchdogs, the request for information said.

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A Message from AIAA’s Executive Director

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Originally posted by AIAA

Dear Colleague,

As we start 2013, there is little doubt that the full impact of 2012 events has yet to play out. In 2012 we witnessed a "perfect storm" of the fallout from a scandal within a federal agency - the General Services Administration (GSA) - and the failure of Congress and the White House to achieve meaningful budgetary progress. This combination has left our Institute facing an atmosphere of tightening government travel rules and shrinking agency budgets - both of which threaten the long-term viability of AIAA.

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Agencies Justify Conference Tabs Above $100,000

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Originally posted by Charles S. Clark on Government Executive

 

Agencies have submitted summaries of conference spending in fiscal 2012 to the Office of Management and Budget that include justifications for training events that exceeded $100,000. The reports are required by a May 2012 memo from Acting Budget Director Jeffrey Zients.

Expanding on a 2011 OMB directive and executive order from President Obama promoting efficient spending, the latest Zients memo requires reductions in travel and conferences in the wake of the spring 2012 scandal involving extravagant spending at a General Services Administration training conference. It prohibits conferences costing more than $500,000 and requires agencies to report on events costing more than $100,000. Reports from all agencies were due Jan. 31.

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Energy Department advised to keep a closer eye on contractor travel

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Originally posted by Charles S. Clark on GovExec

The Energy Department should strengthen monitoring of its contractors' foreign travel, which in the past six years has cost more than $300 million for 90,000 trips, according to a recent management alert the department's inspector general issued.

IG Gregory Friedman noted about 85 percent of Energy's travel costs were incurred by contractors on projects such as inspecting nuclear weapons and visiting Japan in the aftermath of the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear power disaster.

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