OGE's Access to Commerce Travel Records

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed whether the Department of Commerce should have allowed the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) access to its records of reimbursed travel in 1992. GAO noted that: (1) OGE has broad authority to monitor agency ethics programs and is entitled to access to all records related to such reimbursed travel that any agency may possess to ensure compliance with statutory requirements; (2) Commerce is the only agency that ever challenged OGE access to reimbursed travel records; and (3) although OGE could have attempted to resolve the access dispute when it arose, there was no reason to object to its oral requests for the records.