Guard Costs for Cabinet: $5.1 Million : Security: GAO report covers 10 federal departments. It says officers sometimes provide personal services, like carrying luggage.

Ten federal departments spent $5.1 million in less than three years on security for Cabinet secretaries, with guards sometimes providing personal services like carrying luggage, a government report said.

The General Accounting Office issued the report late Friday in response to a request in July from 105 members of the House after news reports questioned whether some low-profile Cabinet officials needed security.

The investigation covered the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation and Veterans Affairs. The departments of Defense, Justice, State and Treasury were not included in the request but will be part of a later report, the GAO said.

The 10 departments spent $1.5 million in 1992, $1.6 million in 1993 and $2 million in the first nine months of 1994, the GAO said. The 1994 increase was attributed to substantial increases within three departments, which claimed security costs rose because of controversial policy changes, increased travel and a higher profile secretary in one department.

The GAO report, saying disclosure might sabotage security, did not tie specific spending figures or practices to individual departments, but referred to them as a group or as departments A through J.

Spending for security for top Cabinet officials over the period ranged from $817 for one department to $1.2 million at another, the GAO said.

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, got its data from the departments involved and through interviews with security personnel from four departments.