GovernmentExecutive.com

The Pentagon's $474 million travel booking system survived another congressional attack when negotiators stripped a Senate amendment blocking funding for the program from the fiscal 2007 Defense authorization bill.

The compromise version of the legislation (H.R. 5122), approved by both chambers of Congress late last week, would require the Pentagon to hold off on issuing a new contract for the Defense Travel System until there is a schedule to phase out legacy travel systems. The department also would have to develop fixed requirements for DTS.

In addition, Defense officials would be required to submit an independent study of DTS to congressional defense committees no later than 180 days after the enactment of the bill and to follow up with a report detailing the changes made based on the study's recommendations.

An amendment to the final Senate version of the bill, proposed by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., would have prohibited the Defense Department from spending funds on the Web-based travel booking system. It also would have required the Pentagon to set up a travel system using a service fee pricing method similar to the General Services Administration's eTravel Service.

In June, when the amendment passed, the Pentagon was in the final months of a contract with Northrop Grumman Corp. to develop the long-awaited end-to-end electronic travel booking system. The contract expired Sept. 29.

A Northrop Grumman spokeswoman said the company received a six-month extension for continuing DTS operations and maintenance. The extension anticipates that the government will re-compete the DTS contract, according to a pre-solicitation notice posted on FedBizOpps.

Northrop Grumman has a separate six-month contract under the Defense Travel Management Office for DTS help desk support and sustainment training. The office expects to hold a competition for help desk support, the Northrop Grumman spokeswoman said.

The DTS contract, awarded in May 1998, has survived several attacks in addition to the most recent one. These include another by Coburn a year ago. A second attempt failed when House members in June rejected by a vote of 285-141 an amendment to the fiscal 2007 Defense appropriations bill that would have cut off the system's funding.

Last week, the Government Accountability Office reported that an estimate the implementation of DTS would produce $56 million in annual net savings was based on unreliable information.

"Taxpayers don't need any more studies to know that DTS has become the defense industry's bridge to nowhere," said John Hart, a spokesman for Coburn's office.

"Congress should end this boondoggle and stop appeasing Northrop lobbyists," Hart said. "Congress may be rewarding Northrop for its inept handling of this program. It seems that they're giving them more opportunity to make money off of this program."

COMMENTS

• Have these people never heard of Priceline.com? I know the government gets a break on the price, but at nearly $500 million I would expect the cost/savings lines to cross fairly far out. This has the scent of a boondoggle. Bob Schilling Posted October 6, 2006 2:13 AM
• Yes! DTS is in use as we speak. Is it saving money? Not even remotely. If we actually use DTS, the cost of airline tickets is higher we never get the best routing. The cost of hotel rooms is invariably higher. I do have to admit that the speed of reimbursement has improved considerably, however. The appearance is that DTS is a program intended to spend taxpayer dollars excessively while giving much less bang for the buck Larry R. Doane Posted October 6, 2006 8:18 AM
• DTS is so broken it cannot be fixed. It takes the average employee more than two hours to book a trip using it when our previous system only took about 15 minutes. DTS is pure waste, fraud and abuse! The FBI should investigate the people supporting continued use of DTS when it finishes the Foley investigation. GovExec.com reader Posted October 6, 2006 5:41 AM