WASHINGTON, Oct 4: US federal officials improperly spent $146 million dollars (100 million euros) of taxpayers’ money in 12 months by travelling business or first class when they should have flown economy, a report has shown.

Federal agencies are supposed to “conduct all travel as responsibly as possible” both to safeguard taxpayers’ money and in the light of “the serious fiscal challenges facing the government,” said the report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), issued at the end of September.

But too often they don’t, according to the GAO, which monitors fraud, waste and abuse in federal programms.

“A weak control environment ... resulted in at least $146 million in improper first and business class travel by executive branch agencies over the 12-month period ending June 30, 2006,” the report said.

That represented two-thirds of the $230 million spent by federal agencies on premium class tickets, which typically cost more than five times the price of coach class travel for comparable routes, the report said.

Senior executives and presidential appointees with Senate confirmation made up a disproportionately large part of those with a penchant for wide seats and lots of legroom: they accounted for 15 per cent of premium class travel but constitute about 0.5 per cent of the federal workforce, the report said.

Examples were cited to back up the accusations, and although the big-spending high-flyers were not named, the GAO has reported them to their respective agencies and they could be made to repay any excessive travel expenses.

On one case, a presidential appointee to the Treasury “bought 21 tickets in premium class at a total cost to the government of $129,000.”

Nineteen of those tickets were either not authorised or “authorised by a subordinate and therefore improper,” according to the report.

A US Department of Agriculture official flew in the face of the rules at the agency and had a subordinate authorise 25 trips in premium class. He racked up a bill of $163,000 for taxpayers.

And a presidential appointee to the defence department flew premium class on 15 trips, citing a medical condition.

That, together with overseas trips longer than six hours or unavailability of seats in economy for urgent travel, is one of the conditions under which federal officials can travel in first or business class.

But they are supposed to provide a note from a doctor, confirming the alleged medical condition. The defence department official got a colleague to write his note for him.—AFP