Winging It

The Feds fly high

"We have stringent guidelines for the use of federal-owned automobiles," the says use Dick of Helmer, seniorgroup director of the watchdog General Accounting Office, "but nothing on aircraft."As a result, said the GAO in a report last week, there is widespread waste and misuse by U.S. officials of Government air planes. The GAO looked at purchasing and maintenance practices in 19 agencies, ranging in size from the relatively small Bureau of Reclamation to theTennessee Valley Authority, and found:

> The Coast Guard, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) wasted $3 million by using their own aircraft rather than commercial services between 1979 and 1981.

> Planes belonging to civilian agencies routinely transported wives and dependents of Government executives.

> When civilian agencies had the same missions, they usually did not share aircraft, maintenance or storage facilities.

> Many flights carried few passengers and at times returned empty after discharging travelers at their destinations. During 1980 and 1981, for example, two NASA aircraft made more than 700 flights with no passengers. The cost of the riderless flights: $450,000.

The study found that the 19 nonmilitary federal agencies were operating 675 Government-owned aircraft worth $440 million in October 1981. Running those planes cost $326 million annually. The agencies also leased, rented and chartered thousands of additional aircraft at a cost of nearly $100 million.

Texas Democrat Jack Brooks, chairman of the House Committee on Government Operations, whose Government Activities and Transportation subcommittee ordered the study, commented: "The widespread abuses and misuse of aircraft show a shameful disregard for the taxpayers' money." By contrast, the FAA said the GAO report was "so replete with errors, omissions and inadequacies as to be virtually unusable as a management appraisal or decision document."

Errors or no, the report may ground some high flyers. According to the report, an agency of the Bureau of Land Management that had been leasing nine planes and owned one, now leases two for some $800,000 a year. It estimates savings at $4 million annually. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.