This has been a bad couple of weeks for the reputation of federal employees. The GSA conference has resulted in negative publicity for the expenditure of federal money for federal travel. Many in the press and many taxpayers are outraged at spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in a lavish spending spree with little in the way of positive results for the money that was spent, and lawmakers are clamping down by introducing legislation in response to the news to restrict the travel process.
The GSA incident was followed by Secret Service agents spending a few days at a luxury hotel, allegedly hiring escorts and otherwise spending a lot of time and money with the result being a huge amount of negative publicity for Uncle Sam’s civilian army.
We asked FedSmith.com users what they think about the government travel process based on their own experience and in light of the recent travel spending scandals.
Of the 2,600 responses, almost all respondents had traveled on government business. Most felt the travel was justified and there was sufficient oversight in the process, all of which suggests that most FedSmith.com readers would say that the recent incidents were the exception and not the norm.
The full results are listed below. Thanks to everyone who took the time to share their opinions!
| Have you traveled on TDY for the federal government? | |
| Yes | 98.4% |
| No | 1.6% |
| Did the results of your travel justify the government’s expenses for your trip? | |
| Yes | 76.8% |
| No | 19.0% |
| Not applicable/not sure | 4.1% |
| Is there sufficient oversight for approval of travel expenses for your agency to ensure the expenses are within reason and the trips are worthwhile? | |
| Yes | 73.6% |
| No | 18.8% |
| Not sure | 7.6% |
