TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The state of Florida's policy that
prohibits paying travel agency service fees will be among the
topics discussed at the Chapter Presidents' Council in Seville,
Spain, Feb. 11 and 12, according to Doris Green, South Florida
chapter president.
The Florida Controller's Office late last year notified the
state's administrative agencies that they cannot pay what it termed
"a surcharge" for the use of agency services. "Our understanding of
this surcharge is that travel agencies are attempting to recoup
lost/reduced commissions normally paid to them from the airlines,"
said the Oct. 27 memo, which was written by William Monroe,
director of the Division of Accounting and Auditing.
The division falls within the province of the controller's
office. "No additional service is being provided [to the state] for
this surcharge."
Taking umbrage at this interpretation is ASTA president Michael
Spinelli, who has requested that agents send the controller's
office a tape of the recent "20/20" television program documenting
huge air-fare savings from agency services.
Mike Gomez, chief of the Bureau of Auditing of the controller's
office, noted that state employees can use travel agencies and that
several state agencies have contracts with travel agencies. But he
said the state has not entered into any overall corporate-agency
agreements because it is controlling travel costs by administrative
rules.
Under annually renewable agreements, for example, the state has
contracts with three airlines -- ComAir, Northwest and US Airways
-- setting state rates for city pairs, he said. Another contract
with Avis covers car-rental rates, he said.
The state sets a $21 maximum per diem for meals, he added, and
employees must justify lodging costs of more than $100 per day.
Gomez said the controller's office has received few complaints from
agencies about the policy on service fees.