Audits

In response to a request from the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, we performed a periodic Department-wide review of policies and practices regarding political activities and travel by DOT employees. This report is our fifth and final response and covers travel during the period of October 1 through November 30, 2000. We identified three trips involving a mix of official and political travel that required reimbursement from sponsoring organizations and we confirmed that DOT had received the appropriate payments. Of the 16 officials who were appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, 7 did no campaigning during this period. The former Secretary spent 141 hours campaigning or at political events, of which 77 hours were after normal work hours. The other eight officials spent a total of 546 hours campaigning, of which 537 hours were on their own time. We did not identify any violations of the Hatch Act.