Defense Transportation: DOD Can Better Ensure That Federal Agencies Fully Reimburse for Using Military Aircraft
Released: 2014-02-27T00:00:00

Letter

Background

Requirements for Travel on Military Aircraft

OMB Circular A-126 and DOD guidance require that DOD’s aircraft for special air missions operate primarily for official purposes to: perform agency responsibilities, as directed by the Secretary of Defense or the President; transport officials that the President or the Secretary of Defense designate due to the need for security, secure communications, or exceptional scheduling; and transport officials for other agency business, such as giving speeches, attending conferences, and making routine site visits.

DOD guidance also states that certain officials, such as the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are required at all times to use military aircraft in lieu of commercial aircraft. Because of this requirement, these officials are authorized to fly on military aircraft for unofficial travel. Guests may accompany authorized senior federal government officials when space is available; however, schedulers may not select a larger aircraft to accommodate guests. Moreover, guests are required to pay the U.S. Treasury the cost of a coach-class ticket for a comparable itinerary.

Role of the 89th Airlift Wing in Special Air Missions for DOD

The 89th Airlift Wing, which is headquartered at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, provides worldwide transportation for cabinet members, members of Congress, and other high-ranking dignitaries of the United States and foreign governments. Within the 89th Airlift Wing, the Presidential Airlift Group manages air transportation exclusively for the President. The Office of Special Air Missions, which is within the Office of the Air Force’s Vice Chief of Staff, coordinates and schedules the 89th Airlift Wing’s special air missions.

As of December 2013, the 89th Airlift Wing supported special air missions by maintaining a fleet of 15 aircraft, which was composed of 5 C-20Bs (equivalent to a Gulfstream III), 6 C-37A/Bs (equivalent to a Gulfstream V) and 4 C-32s (equivalent to a Boeing 757). Figure 1 show examples of these aircraft.

Appendix II provides details on the capabilities of aircraft in the 89th Airlift Wing. The 89th Airlift Wing’s flight operations are funded from annual appropriations to the Air Force’s operation and maintenance account. The Air Mobility Command manages the portion of the account that funds the wing. For fiscal year 2012, the wing reported an annual operating budget of $70.7 million.

Process for Requesting, Approving, and Scheduling Special Air Missions

OMB, DOD, and White House guidance outlines the process that executive branch agencies, the White House, and Congress follow to request, approve, prioritize, and schedule travel by senior government officials on military aircraft (see fig. 2).

Senior federal government officials seeking to travel on 89th Airlift Wing aircraft must submit their requests for review and agency-level approval within their respective agencies. The agency is expected to review the itinerary and passenger list, ascertain whether the trip is for official reasons, and determine whether the agency should reimburse DOD for the cost of the travel. When the travel is directed by the President, the request is reviewed and approved by the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Executive Secretary. Members of Congress submit their requests to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs for review and approval. Requests from executive branch agencies, including those prepared by DOD, are submitted to the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Executive Secretary for review and approval. Once approved, requests are forwarded to the Air Force’s Office of Special Air Missions for scheduling and a unique five-digit identifying number is assigned for each mission. If the 89th Airlift Wing does not have sufficient aircraft to accommodate all of the requests for travel, the Office of Special Air Missions works with the agencies to accommodate their requests. Accommodating requests may entail changing the time or dates, or using aircraft from sources outside of the 89th Airlift Wing. If Air Force schedulers cannot accommodate competing requests, schedulers plan the missions according to the traveling officials’ priority rankings, which are shown in table 1.

Requirement to Reimburse for Travel on Special Air Missions

Federal agencies generally are required to reimburse DOD for the cost of special air missions flown by the 89th Airlift Wing. After the completion of a special air mission that is reimbursable to DOD, the Office of Special Air Missions sends a memo to Air Mobility Command’s Financial Management Directorateincludes an invoice for the mission’s costs. The Financial Management Directorate reviews the invoice information and, if approved, forwards it to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), which inputs the invoice information into the Air Force’s General Accounting and Finance System. DFAS notifies the Department of the Treasury to transfer funds to collect payment for the mission. The memo for the mission’s costs from the traveling agency’s budget account into the Air Force’s budget account. Once the transfer of funds is complete, DFAS records the reimbursement in the Air Force’s accounting system. This process is shown in figure 3.

In accordance with OMB Circular A-126, DOD calculates the reimbursement amount for special air missions by multiplying a predetermined hourly rate of the particular type of aircraft by the number of hours flown. The Air Force sets the hourly rate—based on historical actual costs and projected mission costs—to cover fuel, maintenance, and the salaries of military personnel who plan and execute the missions. Table 2 shows the reimbursement rates for federal agencies for fiscal years 2008 through 2012. These reimbursement rates do not include the cost of in-flight services such as catering and secure communications, which are provided by DOD-approved private contractors and are billed separately.

Number and Cost of Special Air Missions Have Increased Over 5 Years

From fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2012, the 89th Airlift Wing flew a total of 2,513 special air missions—522 special air missions during fiscal year 2012, a 13-percent increase over the 463 missions that it flew during fiscal year 2008. The cost of special air missions ranged from about $17 million in fiscal year 2008 to about $26 million in fiscal year 2012, and the fees paid for secure communication services ranged from about $4 million in fiscal year 2008 to $7 million in fiscal year 2012.

Number of Special Air Missions Increased 13 Percent and Cost About $96 Million for Fiscal Years 2008 Through 2012

From fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2012, the 89th Airlift Wing flew 2,513 special air missions to transport senior federal government officials at a cost of about $96 million. As table 3 shows, over the 5-year period that we reviewed, the number of special air missions—which include reimbursable and nonreimbursable missions—flown by the 89th Airlift Wing generally increased. Overall, the number of special air missions increased by 13 percent from fiscal year 2008 (463 missions) through fiscal year 2012 (522 missions). Officials from the 89th Airlift Wing told us that this increase in special air missions was caused by many factors, including greater demand from DOD and other federal agencies for 89th Airlift Wing aircraft and the limited availability of other military and government-operated aircraft to transport senior federal government officials. The annual cost of special air missions fluctuated from a low of $14 million in fiscal year 2009 to a high of $26 million in fiscal year 2012. Officials attributed this cost fluctuation to the increase in the number of missions flown, as well as cost changes in fuel, aircraft maintenance, and military personnel salaries.

The federal agencies with the largest number of special air missions were DOD (1,928 missions) and the Department of State (220 missions), as shown in figure 4. Members of Congress had the next highest number of missions with 133 missions. Collectively, these two agencies and Congress accounted for about 91 percent of all special air missions flown by the 89th Airlift Wing. Examples of why agencies used 89th Airlift Wing aircraft—instead of their own agencies’ aircraft or commercial aircraft— include:

An official from the Department of State was directed by the President to travel on a nonreimbursable basis in furtherance of foreign policy, for which commercial aircraft would not be able to provide the necessary secure communications and security.

The Secretary of Veterans Affairs traveled on a reimbursable basis due to exceptional scheduling demands.

The Attorney General traveled on a reimbursable basis because the Department of Justice’s Gulfstream aircraft was unavailable while being used on another mission.

See appendix III for a complete breakout of the special air missions flown by the 89th Airlift Wing, by traveling agency and by fiscal year.

Of the four types of military aircraft that the 89th Airlift Wing used for special air missions during fiscal years 2008 through 2012, the C-20B (Gulfstream III) was used most often to transport senior federal government officials, accounting for over 40 percent of all missions. The C-20B can carry up to 12 passengers and is used primarily for travel within the continental United States. The C-37A (Gulfstream V) and C- 37B (Gulfstream V) also can carry up to 12 passengers, but can fly more than twice the distance and hours as the C-20B. The C-32A (Boeing 757) can carry up to 46 passengers, and can fly about the same distance and hours as the C-37A and C-37B. Table 4 shows the number of special air missions flown on each of the 89th Airlift Wing’s aircraft, and by fiscal year. Appendix II provides more information on the capabilities of these aircraft.

Agencies Paid DOD About $29 Million for Secure Communications

During fiscal years 2008 through 2012, federal agencies paid DOD about for providing secure communications services (e.g., secure $29 milliontelephone calls, e-mail, and Internet access) on 89th Airlift Wing special air missions (see table 5). Annual fees for secure communications services ranged from about $4 million in fiscal year 2008 to $7 million in fiscal year 2012.

Agencies pay DOD for secure communications services that are used during flights. Each agency is charged a fee of $500 to $1,000 per special air mission for secure communications services and pre-flight equipment testing, regardless of whether agencies use this capability. Additional charges are applied on a per-unit basis, so agencies are charged per minute of telephone time and per kilobyte of data downloaded. Agencies that fly frequently on military aircraft can enter into an annual support agreement with the 89th Airlift Wing that includes an estimate of charges it will pay for secure communications services in the upcoming fiscal year.

Agencies Followed Guidance for Special Air Missions, but DOD Does Not Identify and Track Reimbursements for Each Mission

DOD and other federal agencies followed DOD guidance on the high- priority movement of senior federal government officials on military aircraft. This guidance addresses the request, approval, prioritization, scheduling—and in DOD’s case—reimbursement from non-DOD agencies for special air missions. However, DOD does not identify and track whether it was reimbursed for each special air mission. DOD guidance does not specify that DOD officials should track reimbursements by special air mission. However, internal control standards emphasize the importance of activities, such as documenting transactions, to help ensure that management directives are carried out— in this case, that each special air mission was reimbursed when required. We found that DOD was unable to document reimbursement for 16 (about 9 percent) of 180 special air missions; the 16 missions cost about $353,000 during fiscal years 2009 through 2012.

Agencies Follow Guidance for Special Air Missions

DOD established processes governing the use of military aircraft by senior federal government officials from DOD, other executive branch agencies, the White House, and Congress, including a process for collecting reimbursements when required. These processes outline procedures for requesting, approving, and prioritizing travel to minimize costs and to effectively use limited resources. For example, the Office of Special Air Missions established guidance outlining its process for contacting and coordinating with traveling agencies prior to scheduling a mission. Agencies follow the processes outlined in the guidance in order to be approved to use military aircraft. Further, the processes implement the requirement that federal agencies reimburse DOD for the cost of special air missions flown by the 89th Airlift Wing. Traveling agencies reimburse at a rate that the Air Force sets annually for each aircraft type to cover the cost of fuel and maintenance, contractor fees, and salaries of For example, for military personnel who plan and execute the missions.fiscal year 2012, the Air Force set a reimbursement rate of $3,273 per flying hour for each of six C-37A/B aircraft in the 89th Airlift Wing.

Since our 1999 report, in which we found that DOD did not collect payments for all billed reimbursable missions, DOD established partnership agreements with several agencies that travel frequently on military aircraft. These agreements allow for electronic transfer of funds via the Department of Treasury’s Intra-governmental Payment and Collection System to cover the cost of a completed special air mission. DFAS officials told us that under these partnership agreements, when a special air mission is approved and scheduled, the traveling agency agrees to pay an estimated amount of money to cover the cost of that mission. After the 89th Airlift Wing notifies DFAS that a mission has been completed, DFAS transfers funds from the traveling agency to DOD to cover mission costs. If a traveling agency does not have a partnership agreement with DOD to enable transfer of funds through the Intra- Governmental Payment and Collection System, DFAS will bill the agency for reimbursement costs.

DOD Does Not Identify and Track Reimbursements for Each Special Air Mission

We determined that traveling agencies should have reimbursed DOD approximately $5 million for 180 (about 9 percent) of the 2,050 special air missions flown during fiscal years 2009 through 2012. However, DOD does not identify and track the billing and reimbursement for each special air mission and officials could not document whether agencies paid all required reimbursements.

Of the 180 reimbursable special air missions flown by the 89th Airlift Wing during fiscal years 2009 through 2012, 77 missions involved agencies that, given the sensitivity of their work, are not identified in this report at DOD’s request.special air missions were the Department of State (49 missions) and Department of Homeland Security (34 missions). Collectively, these three groups of agencies accounted for about 89 percent of reimbursable special air missions flown on the 89th Airlift Wing’s aircraft. Table 6 shows the number and cost of reimbursable special air missions by each traveling agency during fiscal years 2009 through 2012.

Conclusions

From fiscal years 2008 through 2012, the Air Force’s 89th Airlift Wing flew senior federal government officials on more than 3,400 special air missions. DOD has developed a process to manage requests, approvals, and scheduling that is consistent with OMB and DOD guidance. However, without a process to identify and track the costs and applicable agency reimbursements on a mission-by-mission basis, and DOD is unable to document whether it was paid for all required reimbursements. Consequently, DOD may not be receiving required reimbursements for the cost of special air missions.

Recommendation for Executive Action

To ensure that federal agencies fully reimburse DOD for special air missions when required to do so, we recommend that the Secretary of Defense direct the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer to revise guidance and require that DOD organizations develop and implement a process that identifies and tracks each special air mission, such as tracking by mission number or another unique identifier, from billing through reimbursement for all applicable costs.

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation

We provided a draft of this report to DOD for official review and comment. In its written response, reproduced in appendix IV, DOD concurred with our recommendation and provided additional comments. DOD also provided technical clarifications, which we incorporated where appropriate.

In its written comments, DOD stated that our recommendation would address the documentation problems that we identified in the reimbursement process. Specifically, DOD stated that it anticipates issuing further regulatory guidance to address our recommendation, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Executive Secretary has asked federal agencies requesting the use of military aircraft to include a line of accounting code in each request memo. According to DOD, this accounting code, along with the Air Force’s unique five-digit number for each special air mission, will ensure repayments of appropriate mission expenses. We believe that DOD is taking a step in the right direction to improve its internal controls by including a line of accounting code in the request memos, which would identify the agency budget account to charge and would make the billing process quicker. However, agencies often reimburse for multiple missions with one payment under the same budget account, which would still not identify whether each special air mission was reimbursed. We continue to believe that DOD should use the unique identifiers that it assigns to each special air mission to track each mission throughout the billing and reimbursement process to better ensure that DOD is fully reimbursed, as appropriate, for each mission. Doing so would allow DOD to fix a gap in internal controls that does not allow DOD to readily match billing with subsequent reimbursements for each special air mission and would fully address our recommendation. During our review, we and DOD officials had to expend considerable time and effort to identify, obtain, and analyze documentation to determine whether the department was appropriately reimbursed for each special air mission.

In its written comments, DOD also stated that we did not include a large portion of the missions flown by the 89th Airlift Wing that supported travel by the President, Vice President, and their families in this review. We recognize that these missions are a large part of the 89th Airlift Wing’s total missions; however, the scope of this review focused solely on travel by high-level executives within DOD and other federal agencies.

We are sending copies of this report to the appropriate congressional committees; the Secretary of Defense; the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics; the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller); the Secretary of the Air Force; the Office of Management and Budget; General Services Administration; the White House Military Office; and other interested parties. In addition, the report is available at no charge on the GAO website at http://www.gao.gov.

If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please contact me at (404) 679-1875 or curriec@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. GAO staff who made key contributions to this report are listed in appendix V.

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

To determine the extent to which senior federal government officials have used military aircraft and the costs associated with this travel, we obtained and analyzed information from the 89th Airlift Wing regarding special air missions during fiscal years 2008 through 2012 for executive branch agencies and Congress. Specifically, we tabulated the number of special air missions flown by agency and by fiscal year. We excluded from our review special air missions on aircraft outside of those in the Air Force’s 89th Airlift Wing that DOD infrequently uses to transport senior officials. The aircraft used outside of the 89th Airlift Wing include assets of the Air Force’s 310th Air Squadron located at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida; the 201st Air Squadron at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland; the 932nd Airlift Wing at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois; as well as aircraft of the Navy, Army, U.S. Pacific Command, U.S. European Command, and U.S. Africa Command. To determine the costs associated with the 89th Airlift Wing’s special air missions, we calculated the cost of special air missions flown during fiscal years 2008 through 2012 using the flight duration of the mission and the cost per flying hour associated with the type of aircraft used. The cost per flying hour is calculated by the Air Force at the end of each fiscal year by dividing the actual annual costs for fuel, maintenance, and the salaries of military personnel who plan and execute the missions by the number of hours flown for each aircraft. We analyzed the data for any anomalies, such as inaccurate or missing information. Further, we met with officials from the Air Force’s Office of Special Air Missions and the White House Military Office to discuss how the mission data was accumulated and validated for accuracy and completeness. We determined that the data on the number of special air missions flown, the names of the traveling agencies that flew on these missions, and the costs associated with these missions were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of our review.

To determine the extent to which agencies have followed guidance governing the use of military aircraft by senior federal government officials, we analyzed relevant directives, instructions, manuals, and other guidance issued by DOD, OMB, and the White House, reviewed relevant laws, and met with cognizant officials from these organizations, and from the General Services Administration and the Department of the Treasury. We compared the organizations’ guidance and the Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government to the request, approval, scheduling, and reimbursement processes adopted by the 89th Airlift Wing, Air Force’s Office of Special Air Missions, Air Force’s Air Mobility Command, DFAS, and the White House Military Office to determine whether the processes were in accordance with the guidance and internal control standards. This review does not include travel by the President, Vice President, First Lady, and Second Lady. To identify those special air missions for which DOD should be reimbursed and the amounts to be reimbursed, we analyzed Air Force and DFAS billing and payment data, which were available for the past four years from fiscal years 2009 through 2012. To determine if DOD received payments for the identified reimbursable missions, we reviewed billing and reimbursement documentation and met with officials from DFAS and Air Mobility Command to discuss their process for collecting and tracking reimbursements. We determined that the reimbursement data were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of our review.

We conducted this performance audit from March 2013 to February 2014 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

Appendix II: Capabilities of Military Aircraft Used By the 89th Airlift Wing to Perform Special Air Missions

Aircraft (civilian equivalent) C-20B (Gulfstream III)

Passenger capacity (with ravens) 12 (10)

Vice President, Secretary of State, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 12 (10)

Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 12 (10)

Appendix III: 89th Airlift Wing’s Number of Special Missions, by Traveling Agency and by Fiscal Year (in Alphabetical Order)

Appendix III: 89th Airlift Wing’s Number of Special Missions, by Traveling Agency and by Fiscal Year (in Alphabetical Order)

Agencies Agriculture Commerce Congress DOD Energy Health and Human Services Homeland Security Housing and Urban Development Interior Justice Labor, Veterans Affairs, Transportation Sensitive Missions State Treasury Total

Appendix IV: Comments from the Department of Defense

Appendix V: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

GAO Contact

Staff Acknowledgments

In addition to the contact named above, Marc Schwartz, Assistant Director; John Beauchamp; Richard Burkard; Cynthia Grant; Hillary Hampton; Gina Hoffman; Amie Steele Lesser; Richard Powelson; and Christine San made key contributions to this report.