Washington - The Defense Department spent an estimated $100 million for airline tickets that were not used over a six- year period and didn't seek refunds even though the tickets were reimbursable, congressional investigators say. The department compounded the problem by reimbursing employee claims for tickets bought by the Pentagon, the investigators said.
To demonstrate how easy it was to have the Pentagon pay for airline travel, the investigators posed as Defense employees, had the department generate a ticket and showed up at the ticket counter to pick up a boarding pass.
Congress' General Accounting Office issued the findings in two reports on the Pentagon's lack of control over airline travel, copies of which The Associated Press obtained Tuesday. An earlier report, issued in November, found that the Pentagon bought 68,000 first-class or business-class airline seats for employees who should have flown coach.
"At a time when our soldiers are patrolling the streets of Iraq in unarmored Humvees, and when the Bush administration is asking for record defense spending, Secretary (Donald) Rumsfeld is letting hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to protect our troops and our country go to waste," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., one of three lawmakers who ordered the studies.
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~11676~2201015,00.html
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