Travel in 1st Class When Flying to the 3rd World

We might all be too jaded these days to lift an eyebrow upon hearing of questionable behavior by government officials, but this bit of news on misuse of premium class travel deserves notice. From the WSJ:

Most business-class and first-class travel by federal bureaucrats is improper and unwarranted, costing taxpayers an extra $146 million in a recent 12-month period

What's ironic about the findings of this GAO report is that the bureaucrats who flew premium class most consistently belonged to the Millenium Challenge Corporation, the agency charged with assisting the world's poorest countries.

The reason for the high percentage of premium class flights was that MCC flights over 14 hours were automatically upgraded to first or business class. (Overall, business class flights made 96 percent of all premium class flights)

But apparently the MCC doesn't see any problems.

An MCC spokesman called the spending legal and justified. It said the corporation "tightened controls on travel" in 2005 and "earlier this year put in place additional procedures to monitor and reduce costs."

Meanwhile, the GAO gave a pat on the back to the Defense and Homeland Security Departments:

We found that more than 70 percent of State's and 85 percent of MCC's over 14-hour flights to Africa, the Middle East, and selected locations in Europe were in premium class. In contrast, only 3 percent of DOD and Department of Homeland Security travel to these same locations was carried out using premium class, which resulted in millions of dollars of savings for these agencies.