White House Travel

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the White House Travel Office's operations, focusing on the: (1) status of the 29 criteria used to evaluate the Office's financial management and procurement operations; and (2) reliability of Travel Office Press Fund financial statement audits for 1994. GAO noted that the Travel Office: (1) has developed policies to address all 29 financial management criteria and has implemented procedures addressing 26 of the criteria; (2) has not implemented procedures for timely billing customers, paying vendors, and reconciling checkbook balances; (3) accounting system does not automatically link its cost collection and allocation activities to its general ledger; (4) maintains two press funds, but preparing financial statements is complicated because the two funds are not segregated; (5) Press Fund financial statements do not detail the types of revenues collected, expenses incurred, or fund-related activities; and (6) Press Fund financial statements were reliable in all material respects, but the financial statement audit would be more informative if it were conducted in accordance with accepted government auditing standards.