(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), the nation’s largest taxpayer watchdog group, today released its latest Through the Looking Glass Report: Defense Travel System: The Twilight Zone of Travel.  The report details the Department of Defense’s (DOD) unsuccessful pursuit of a cost-efficient and streamlined travel system, using millions of taxpayer dollars to fund the program.

For twenty-five years, DOD has been searching for an in-house travel system to provide cheaper, quicker, more streamlined solutions for government travel.  The Defense Travel System (DTS) was to be the answer to DOD’s quest for a more effective travel system.  Instead, DTS is six years behind schedule, has cost taxpayers more than $400 million and has been found by a federal court to be in violation of federal contracting practices.  DTS continues to experience fundamental problems that may never be fixed.  For instance, DTS cannot guarantee the lowest fare nor does it provide travel agents with the necessary information to process travel expenditures.

“While DOD had good intentions to cut wasteful spending and make its travel services more efficient, what it now has is a defective, expensive system, which is only used by an estimated 1 percent of DOD travelers,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “DOD should use alternative e-travel systems, which have cost taxpayers nothing to develop and provide quicker, cheaper solutions.  With the government funding two wars overseas, DOD should be looking for ways to save money by cutting wasteful programs like DTS.” 

Under General Services Administration (GSA) guidelines, every civilian agency will have to choose an e-travel vendor by early 2005.  One of the three choices available is DTS; the other two GSA choices are privately funded systems that guarantee the lowest fare applicable for government travel.  Unfortunately, three agencies have already selected DTS for their e-travel services.  Other agencies must be forewarned of the costs and flaws of the DTS to avoid making the same expensive mistake.   

“Defense Travel System: The Twilight Zone of Travel” was written by CAGW Research Associate Angela French.  For more information and a copy of the full report, please contact Mark Carpenter at 202-467-5300 or visit http://cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reports_dts.

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.