Following today’s release of the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration’s report on travel to a 2010 IRS conference, Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, released the subsequent statement:
“The IG report describes instances of inappropriate and wasteful spending at the portion of IRS employees, who clearly went too far beyond the guidelines installed place to offer protection to taxpayer dollars. Make no mistake – this behavior is both appalling and damaging. Yet that is incumbent on our leaders not to lose sight of the price that responsible travel and face-to-face meetings create for constituents. It’s always the most productive and effective way for presidency professionals to achieve the necessities in their roles.
“Our experience within the private sector means that cutbacks on business travel and meetings directly impact company performance. In line with a study conducted last year by Oxford Economics, of these employees whose companies reduced business travel spending since 2007, only four percent stated that these cutbacks helped company performance while 57 percent believe that reductions in business travel hurt their companies’ performance.
“When conducted responsibly, government conferences, meetings and travel deliver important services to businesses and individual taxpayers – including safety inspections, disaster relief assistance, corporate training on taxes and government regulations, services for the army and more.
“While Congress and the IG should do all they could to root out wasteful spending, let’s not hamstring the effectiveness of federal agencies within the process. We urge all parties to exercise caution in responding to today’s IG report.”