Government Civilian Aircraft

Use of Government Aircraft by the Attorney General and FBI Director Gao ID: GGD-90-84 June 15, 1990

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed travel on government aircraft by the Attorney General and the Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), focusing on: (1) information about their travel; and (2) actions the Department of Justice should take to better manage use of its aircraft for executive transportation.

GAO found that: (1) the Attorney General and FBI Director took 75 trips on government aircraft; (2) Justice permitted the Attorney General and FBI Director to use agency aircraft to ensure their security; (3) FBI did not have complete cost data for its aircraft; (4) Justice had not compared the costs for the executives' transportation on government aircraft to the cost of alternatives; and (5) Justice did not consider private aircraft services because it maintained that its aircraft were for inherently governmental functions. GAO also found that: (1) Justice considered using commercial airline services but rejected the option in order to provide for personal security and secure communications; (2) while providing for executives' security was an inherently governmental function, transporting them on Justice aircraft was not; (3) security requirements for the executives' travel would not be effectively met by commercial airlines; and (4) private leasing or rental aircraft services could satisfy commercial security-related requirements better than regularly scheduled airlines.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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