Park Service jet-setters
grounded
By Audrey
Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The National Park Service
wants to cut park hours and visitor services to save scarce funding, yet has
spent nearly $100 million on travel, including foreign junkets to China, Japan,
Africa, France and Russia since 2002.
Globe-trotting employees held meetings, attended
conferences and gave presentations during their trips, but the practice has
angered lawmakers, who say they are pulling the plug on the agency's travel
program.
Rep. Charles H. Taylor, North Carolina
Republican and chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on the
interior, and Rep. Norm Dicks, Washington Democrat and ranking minority member
of the subcommittee, told Park Service Director Fran Mainella to cancel all
foreign trips and significantly cut domestic travel.
"In this technology age, the service should be
using teleconferencing and other means of automated communications in lieu of
costly travel," the lawmakers told Mrs. Mainella in a letter released
yesterday.
The lawmakers said next year's budget
will require employees to obtain congressional approval for travel abroad.
Park Service employees spent $44 million on travel,
including 215 foreign trips, in 2003 and the first quarter of 2004. Foreign and
domestic travel in 2002 topped $50 million and included 470 foreign junkets,
according to the General Accounting Office and Interior Department inspector
general.
Records show one employee went to Russia
and the Congo at a cost of $13,200, and another went to China, South Africa and
twice to France for $19,200. An employee in the director's office took two
trips to France for a total $6,300, and another employee went to Canada and
South Africa for $10,000. One trip to Finland cost $5,600; another China trip
cost $6,900.
An employee whose office was listed as
"unknown" took a $4,500 trip to Mexico, and other "unknowns" took a $4,000 trip
to France and a $3,000 trip to Argentina.
David
Barna, spokesman for the Park Service, said it is policy not to comment on
communications between Congress and the director and that a written response
will be sent to the lawmakers.
Mr. Barna said not
all travel is paid for by taxpayers, and that some is funded by third parties
such as the World Bank to assist other countries with park-management plans.
The inspector general report released late
yesterday shows less than 1 percent of travel is made to provide technical
assistance to other countries.
Meanwhile, the Park
Service says it is starved for money and is threatening to slash services. A
memo from the Park Service's Northwest region last week suggests eliminating
life guards at a public beach, closing entire parks on Sundays and Mondays and
visitor centers on federal holidays, and shutting down completely November
through February.
Despite limited funding for
current projects, renegade employees secretly planned and designed four new
major construction projects with a $243 million price tag, plus tens of
millions for yearly operational expenses, the lawmakers discovered.
"Diverting funds from critical backlog maintenance
is unacceptable," they said in the letter.
Park
employees sidestepped a law that requires congressional approval of all
construction projects costing more than $5 million by having outside "partners"
develop the plans.
The recently discovered projects
include a $100 million complex under construction at Valley Forge National
Historical Park that will showcase a private collection of memorabilia, a $95
million visitor center at Gettysburg National Military Park and a $26 million
center at Yellowstone National Park.
Lawmakers
didn't learn about a $22 million visitor center at Grand Teton National Park
until the developer came to Capitol Hill last week asking for funding he said
the Park Service had committed to him.
"Common
sense dictates that before you embark on an expensive new project, you should
first consult with the people who are paying the bills," said John Scofield,
spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee. "And the Park Service has not
vetted these projects with the bill payer, which is Congress."
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