Travel Problems Halt O’Leary’s Overseas Trade Missions

Faced with continuing criticism of her expensive foreign travel as well as an ongoing investigation, Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary has agreed not to undertake any new international trade missions until her department resolves well-documented problems in arranging overseas trips.

O’Leary also has ordered new procedures for approving and planning international travel throughout the department, pending the outcome of an inquiry by the department’s inspector general--measures intended to improve accountability and cost-efficiency.

“Unfortunately, I have now concluded that the department has not addressed all of the problems which have been identified over the course of both internal and external reviews,” O’Leary said in a March 13 letter to Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations, which is conducting a series of hearings on O’Leary’s travel and management records.

In the panel’s latest session Wednesday, several Energy Department employees complained that some workers were being furloughed and that merit-pay bonuses were being suspended, actions that they blamed on excess travel spending by the department.

The department’s chief financial officer, Joseph F. Vivona, contended that there was no connection between those actions and O’Leary’s travels, however, and blamed the salary and benefit reductions on congressional budget cuts.

O’Leary has come under fire for her 16 foreign trips and her penchant for large entourages, four-star hotels and luxury airline travel. Most controversial have been four high-profile trade ventures to India, Pakistan, China and South Africa--intended to bolster U.S. business and security interests abroad--that cost taxpayers about $2.6 million.

O’Leary has defended her trips as justified by her international responsibilities and the Clinton administration’s goal of expanding foreign opportunities for U.S. companies. But she was cautioned by the White House because of the public outcry over the scope and style of her journeys.

Inspector General John C. Layton’s staff, which began an investigation of O’Leary’s foreign travels three months ago, has interviewed more than 200 individuals who arranged and participated in the trips and has identified another 300 potential subjects, a spokeswoman said. A July 1 target date has been set to complete his inquiry.

Layton told Barton’s subcommittee earlier this month that his investigation--which was initiated at O’Leary’s request in response to a December story in The Times--has been handicapped by departmental records that make it difficult to determine who went on the trips and how money was spent on them. He described the Energy Department’s travel books as “a mess.”

Layton also criticized O’Leary for continuing to conduct trade missions even though the department failed to implement all the reforms that he recommended in a 1994 report. These included establishing formal procedures for purchasing international air services and a systematic process for recouping flight costs from business executives and other nongovernmental trip participants.

Energy Department spokeswoman Carmen MacDougall said Wednesday that with the adoption of new interim international travel procedures, the department has incorporated each of Layton’s 1994 recommendations and addressed concerns of the General Accounting Office. A GAO review, conducted after two of the trade missions, documented lax accounting procedures.

Nevertheless, MacDougall said a proposed Latin American trade mission sometime this year has been shelved in the wake of the travel controversy and budget constraints.

Among those constraints was an $18-million reduction in Energy Department salaries and benefits. In response, the department has required 2,700 administrative employees to take two days off without pay, eliminated merit awards and bonuses, reduced overtime spending and increased the number of voluntary buyouts. Leaders of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents many Energy Department employees, said the union agreed to this approach to avoid layoffs.

Barton’s hearing Wednesday focused on the furloughs. Three Energy Department employees, attorneys L. Dow Davis and Anne Troy and secretary Deborah J. Bullock, cited the GAO travel report as evidence that the department continued spending freely despite impending congressional belt-tightening. Specifically, they pointed to the $663,000 price tag for the 1995 South Africa mission, including $98,000 for ground transportation and $10,000 for cellular phones.

Vivona replied that the department had shifted $1 million--the maximum permitted without congressional approval--from other accounts, including O’Leary’s office, to cover some of the salary and benefit shortfall. Beyond that sum, he said, the department’s hands are tied. He added that the department had appealed the proposed cuts to Congress with only limited success.

Nevertheless, some Energy Department employees said O’Leary’s far-flung travels and the ensuing publicity have been demoralizing.

“The antagonism is deep, unfortunately,” said a mid-level political appointee. “The career folks are not happy, especially those who have been furloughed.”