Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the ranking member on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has called on DHS to implement recommendations issued by the department’s inspector general who concluded employees failed to account properly for travel and conference expenses.
From fiscal 2005 – 2007 DHS employees went to conferences in nearly 45,000 instances. It spent $110 million for 8,359 of those instances, but the data was not reliable, the IG said.
"Conference cost data did not contain sufficient supporting documentation, and were unreliable, unverifiable, and provided little assurance that all conferences and related costs were tracked and accounted for properly," said the report. DHS largely agreed with the assessments.
The department said improvements to its travel and facility use program have begun and are saving money on conference activities, and that work is underway to build a departmental conferences policy.
"While some of this travel is related to essential training and exercise programs, the IG’s findings do not inspire confidence that the department ensured careful stewardship of the taxpayers’ money," Collins said, adding, "The bottom line is clear: DHS must improve oversight of this spending to achieve the public confidence that the department needs to accomplish its critical missions."
