Hearing Of The Subcommittee On Management, Investigations, And Oversight Of The House Committee On Homeland Security - Furthering The Mission Or Having Fun: Lax Travel Policies Cost DHS Millions

Today, Committee on Homeland Security Chairman
Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) delivered the following prepared remarks for the
Management, Investigations, and Oversight Subcommittee hearing entitled "Furthering the
Mission or Having Fun: Lax Travel Policies Cost DHS Millions":
"During the last Administration, at my request, the DHS Inspector General examined the
spending practices of the Department of Homeland Security, as it relates to conferences,
retreats and similar off-site activities. When the request was made, I was concerned about
spending patterns that had been revealed at other government agencies and wanted to see
how the Department compared.
Last month, the Office of the Inspector General released the results of its audit, in the form
of a report entitled: DHS Conference Spending Practices and Oversight.
The report revealed an extremely troubling picture of not only the amount of money spent,
but also a lack of internal controls, minimal oversight, and insufficient reporting throughout
the entire Department.
According to the report, from FY 2005 through FY 2007, the Department spent
approximately $110 million on conference-related activities. This money was spent on
sending employees across the nation and around the world in 43,989 instances.
For example, the Department spent almost $30,000 to send 150 CBP employees to a
conference in St. Simons, GA; CBP also spent over $470, 000 on a three-day event in
Dallas, TX attended by over 300 CBP employees; furthermore, 320 TSA employees
attended a conference in Texas at the cost of $643,000.
These are just a sampling of the 8,359 conferences attended by Department employees
during the relevant time frame.
Let me be clear: by no means am I purporting that Department personnel should not attend
conferences or outside training that are reasonable and support the homeland security
mission.
However, during the IG investigation, it was determined that in the vast majority of these
instances, the Department had not performed cost comparisons to ensure that it was
getting the best price available; properly tracked its spending to make certain that it was on
par with other budgetary needs; or required justification for expenditures so that it could be
shown that legitimate purposes were fulfilled.
None of these things happened. Leaving both Congress and the public with the question:
what did we get for our money? Moreover, the depth of mismanagement of taxpayer
dollars that was discovered by the IG was extremely troubling.
According to the report, the data received from the Department was "unreliable, unverifiable
and contained little assurance that components properly tracked or accounted for all
conferences and related costs."
When I made the request, I informed the IG that "neither waste nor extravagance by the
Department in performance of its critical role should be accepted or condoned." I meant
that when I said it and I continue to stand by that statement now.
At the conclusion of its investigation, the IG made 12 separate recommendations, including
increased Department-wide oversight and the development of internal controls to increase
accountability and transparency of Department conference activities.
I fully intend to monitor the Department's progress on these important recommendations

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