Boyer: Agency Can't Track Assets, Costs
If the FAA is supposed
to be run like a business, it still has a long ways to go. That's
the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's take on the most
recent audit of the agency's books by the Department of
Transportation's inspector general (IG).
AOPA says the IG audit shows the FAA can't properly account
for almost $5 billion in assets and property, most of it attributed
to the new Air Traffic Organization (ATO), which runs the air
traffic control system.
Nor does the FAA yet have a fully functional cost accounting
system, something the agency has been struggling to create since
1997.
"This audit report underscores that the user fee debate is about
more than policy," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "How in the
world can they price their 'product' -- air traffic control
services -- if they can't track their assets or their costs?"
An international law firm that reviewed the audit at AOPA's
request says the agency's financial controls are so weak that it
will cause the entire Department of Transportation to be in
violation of the federal version of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act if not
fixed before September.
Meanwhile, another report from the inspector general says that
the FAA and the airlines have yet to prove that the current funding
system needs to be changed in favor of a user fee system.
In a report on "Top Management Challenges -- Department of
Transportation," the inspector general notes that there is "intense
controversy regarding what type of fees should be charged, who
should pay what, and how -- if at all -- the current oversight of
FAA spending should be altered."
In order to justify a switch to a user fee system, "the FAA
would need to demonstrate clearly and convincingly why the current
excise tax financing mechanism is not adequate and how its proposed
solution would fix this problem."
It hasn't, says
AOPA.
The IG also listed the challenge of determining how much the
FAA's much-touted -- but as yet, undefined -- Next Generation Air
Transportation System will cost. That will determine what kind of
funding the FAA needs. So far, the FAA has just an "estimate" for a
system that has yet to be designed and spec'd.
For that matter, the FAA doesn't even yet know what it will cost
to replace retiring air traffic controllers, according to the
IG.
"If you don't know your costs, how can you possibly say that you
don't have enough revenue?" asked Boyer. "Everybody would like more
money and the freedom to spend it without anybody looking over
their shoulder."
"The FAA sure can't make a business case for that, as the audits
clearly demonstrate."
The FAA audit was conducted by international accounting firm
KPMG, at the request of the inspector general.