The debate has played out in corporate and association boardrooms for much of the past year, but this time, during a February House subcommittee hearing titled "Furthering the Mission or Having Fun: Lax Travel Policies Cost DHS Millions," the prosecution of unconstrained meetings spending and the defense of face-to-face events went live—and in person—on Capitol Hill.

The hearing served as a reminder of the increased scrutiny meetings spending has gained in the past 18 months, an affirmation of concepts deemed by some to be best practices in meetings management—from measuring return on investment to adopting strategic meetings management practices—and yet one more symbol of what can happen when an organization, particularly a public one, engages in what could be deemed to be frivolous travel and meetings spending.

The purpose of the hearing, according to Rep. Chris Carney (D.-Penn.), chairman of the House subcommittee on management, investigations and oversight for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, was to examine the "lack of internal controls, governing policies, oversight and reporting of conference planning and spending practices" at DHS, which is estimated to have spent $110 million on "conference-related activities" between 2005 and 2007—estimated, not confirmed, because the agency didn't have proper controls to measure spending.

Exhibit A, weighing in at more than 45 pages, was a DHS inspector general report that found the agency did not have adequate policies in place to monitor or govern conference spending. "Most alarmingly," Carney said of the report, "a DHS official said there is no reason to track conference expenditures because there are no spending restrictions."

Though Carney stressed that the "members of this subcommittee understand the importance of government travel, including the jobs that are supported by this travel, "the hearing aimed to determine "whether conference spending and attendance at these events were a prudent use of taxpayer dollars."

Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said, "The report revealed an extremely troubling picture of not only the amount of money spent, but also a lack of internal controls, minimal oversight and insufficient reporting throughout the entire department."

Thompson pointed to several conferences on which the department spent hundreds of thousands of dollars with little justification for those purchasing decisions. He stressed, "by no means am I purporting that department personnel should not attend conferences or outside training that are reasonable and support the homeland security mission." Still, Thompson said, "In the vast majority of these instances, the department had not performed cost comparisons to ensure that it was getting the best price available, properly tracked its spending to make certain that it was on par with other budgetary needs or required justification for expenditures so that it could be shown that legitimate purposes were fulfilled. None of these things happened, leaving both Congress and the public with the question: What did we get for our money?"

According to the report, the spending data received from DHS was "unreliable, unverifiable and contained little assurance that components properly tracked or accounted for all conferences and related costs." At the investigation's end, the IG made 12 recommendations to bolster oversight, build internal controls and heighten accountability for spending.

Without using meetings industry terminology, DHS inspector general Richard Skinner advocated that DHS measure the ROI of meetings, centralize management and oversight and employ strategic meetings management principles. He recommended DHS centralize oversight of meetings management, incorporate industry best practices into a single, standard meetings policy, establish a method "to uniformly and consistently capture and report on conference-related planning and cost information," including the evaluation of a mission information system for data capture and explore "cost-effective means and technologies as alternatives to sponsoring conferences and related travel."

Elaine Duke, DHS under secretary for management, said the department has embraced all 12 of those recommendations. She also told the subcommittee that the department "encourages and supports employee participation in federal and non-federal meetings and conferences. Such events are excellent means to exchange and communicate ideas and knowledge. However, there is also a need to ensure that attendance at meetings and conferences is mission-critical, as prescribed in management directives and other policies."

She noted the inspector general report evaluated meetings activities from 2005 through 2007 and that meetings management practices at the department look very different today.

Each spending category now has a "senior accountable official to ensure that the component adheres to travel policies," conference and training events now are "required to be held within the local commuting area of the majority of the conference attendees "unless there "is critical for meeting mission needs or an internal cost-comparison analysis has demonstrated that the savings attributable to use of the particular site in question will offset the transportation and per diem costs." For national conferences, planners must perform a cost comparison "of location and facility alternatives to ensure requirements are met at the lowest possible cost."

In October 2008, Duke said, the department "issued a Department-wide conference planning policy" as part of a broader travel and meetings policy. Then, in March 2009, DHS secretary Janet Napolitano launched "a department-wide efficiency review initiative to trim costs, streamline operations, eliminate duplication and better manage resources across the department," according to Duke, who noted that effort already has resulted in new policies. "Specifically, every effort should be made to conduct meetings, conferences and training using the least costly method to the government," Duke said.

In November 2009, DHS established a conference and event planning services working group, which Duke said would develop further best practices.

On the day of the hearing, U.S. Travel Association president and CEO Roger Dow, who at times in the past year has clashed with lawmakers in Washington over statements that diminished the value of face-to-face meetings, applauded the hearing and the findings of the inspector general's report.

"As the DHS Inspector General report discussed at today's hearing notes, conferences and related travel are important to enhancing government operations," according to Dow. "We agree that effective management of resources dedicated for conferences and events will help to maximize each trip taken, and it is important for government agencies to evaluate the return on investment."

Originally published March 1, 2010 This page is protected by Copyright laws. Do Not Copy