From @lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu:hes@REAGAN.AI.MIT.EDU  Sat May 22 10:54:17 1993
Date: Sat, 22 May 1993 10:17-0400
From: The White House <75300.3115@compuserve.com>
To: Clinton-News-Distribution@campaign92.org
Subject: World Wide Travel Statement by George Stephanopoulos  5.21.93

               Statement of George Stephanopoulos
                          May 21, 1993

     Effective Monday, May 24, 1993, World Wide Travel Service, 
Inc. will no longer serve as the interim out-service travel unit 
for the White House Travel Office.  

     The services now being provided by World Wide will be 
rendered instead by a vendor approved by the General Services 
Administration.  The American Express Travel Office will be the 
agency providing travel services.

     The responsibilities of the White House Travel Office are 
primarily to provide arrangements for the White House press corps 
which accompanies the President of the United States when he 
travels.

     World Wide Travel Service Inc. was selected on an interim 
basis by the White House to provide commercial travel services in 
lieu of those formerly provided by the White House Travel Office.  
The Travel Office employees were dismissed after problems of 
financial mismanagement and sloppy record keeping were reported 
to the White House Office of Administration.  The monies involved 
in the mismanagement largely consisted of funds paid to the 
office by the news media for travel reimbursements.

     World Wide Travel Services Inc. performed reliably and 
effectively for the Clinton Presidential Campaign in 1992, and 
had agreed to provide travel services to the White House on an 
interim basis, following which a competitive bidding process for 
a permanent vendor would take place.  World Wide Travel Services 
Inc. has voluntarily withdrawn from providing further service to 
the White House.

     By conducting an internal review, by bringing in both an 
accounting firm and the FBI, the White House has dealt with the 
reality of travel office mismanagement.  World Wide's decision to 
withdraw should end any possible perception that their selection 
to provide interim White House services was based on a prior 
personal or business relationship with members of the campaign 
staff who now work at the White House.  We nonetheless appreciate 
the willingness of World Wide to step into the breach when it was 
necessary to terminate the employees of the White House Travel 
Office.

     This decision follows an exhaustive White House effort to 
reform and reorganize the White House Travel Office as a 
consequence of the financial mismanagement exposed by an internal 
review and an external report conducted by the accounting firm of 
KMPG Peat Marwick.  The evidence supporting allegations of 
mismanagement was deemed sufficient today by the Federal Bureau 
of Investigation to warrant further criminal investigation.

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