LA Has Lostl Over $200,000 By Purchasing Nonrefundable Airline Tickets

Posted: Jul 21, 2010 1:55 PM by Melissa Canone

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A state inspector general's report says
the state has lost well over $200,000 over the past four years by
purchasing nonrefundable airline tickets that never were used.
Louisiana State University had the most unused tickets among
state agencies with more than $33,000 worth.
Wednesday's report also says that two employees of a travel
agency contracted by the state converted more than $16,000 worth of
state-purchased tickets into airline credit vouchers for their
personal benefit.
The report says the travel agency was alerted to the problem by
a former employee and fired the two workers, the report said.
The Office of State Purchasing has outlined steps it has taken
to correct the problem. A new contractors is taking over travel
arrangements and the agency is instituting a new electronic
tracking system.