(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named defense official Peggy Butler Porker of the Month for encouraging contractors to lobby against an amendment being considered by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) that would reduce excessive funding for the Defense Travel System (DTS).  Peggy Butler is the senior contracting officer for DTS’s acquisitions' division at the Information Technology E-Commerce Commercial Contract Center.  18 USC

§ 1913 prohibits federal employees from using appropriated money to influence the outcome of legislation.

DTS has failed to meet the Pentagon’s expectations for a cost-efficient and streamlined in-house travel system.  DOD continues to pay $40 to $50 million annually up front for the development, deployment, operation and maintenance of DTS.  Since the project is six years behind schedule, the fair approach would be for the contractor to assume such costs and only be paid when the DTS is actually used by DOD travelers, as is the case with the General Services Administration's (GSA) eTravel Service Contract used by the rest of the federal government.  Sen. Coburn, chairman of the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security, is considering an amendment titled “Curtailment of Waste Under Department of Defense Web-Based Travel System.”  The amendment, which would be attached to the Defense Authorization Act, would allow the Pentagon to continue using the DTS, but only paying for actual use by travelers.  DOD could also make travel services arrangements through GSA’s eTravel program.  The amendment would also require that all DOD and GSA eTravel contractors guarantee that airfare purchases are made at the lowest available price.  Daniel Pulliam of Government Executive magazine obtained an email sent by Peggy Butler to small travel agency officials that said: "If you have any influence on Capitol Hill, please use it. This bill cannot be passed."  Sen. Coburn may also hold hearings on DTS in September or October.

CAGW released a report in September 2004 titled Defense Travel System: The Twilight Zone of Travel.  DTS was supposed to cost the DOD a fixed price of $64 million after it had been operationally deployed to every DOD facility and a fee paid to the contractor each time it was used. The total cost for five years with full usage was supposed to be $263.7 million.  But DTS has already cost $474 million to date.  After prime contractor Northrop Grumman realized that DTS was more cumbersome than anticipated, the original fee-for-service contract was secretly and illegally re-worked, foisting all costs associated with the system onto taxpayers.  The U.S. Court of Federal Claims determined that the contract modifications violated the Competition in Contracting Act and required part of the revised agreement to be re-bid.  Even worse, the system is defective and cannot guarantee the lowest fare.  Both the DOD inspector general (IG) and the agency’s program and evaluation office have documented problems with DTS; the IG recommended canceling the program in July 2002.  The Government Accountability Office is evaluating the program.

Apparently, everyone but Peggy Butler and the DTS Program Management Office knows it would be more efficient and less wasteful to use an alternative to the DTS.  DOD could simply use private sector e-travel systems that cost taxpayers nothing to develop and provide quicker and cheaper solutions.  With the war on terror and a $331 billion deficit, contracting officers like Peggy Butler should be saving tax dollars, not keeping a wasteful system in place.   

For violating the law, for putting the interests of contractors above the interests of taxpayers, and for obstructing efforts to de-fund an unnecessary and mismanaged program, CAGW names Peggy Butler Porker of the Month for August 2005.

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.  Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.