Kerry Lynch stepped into the role of editor of the&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;monthly magazine in May 2022 after serving with&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;for eight years. She joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in December 2014 as a senior editor covering Washington and business aviation news. She has also served on Convention News teams, including as editor of&nbsp;HAI Convention News. Lynch previously spent 25 years with Aviation Week. During her time there, she reported for and later steered&nbsp;The Weekly of Business Aviation, oversaw business aviation content on the&nbsp;Aviation Week Intelligence Network, served on the&nbsp;Show News&nbsp;staff, and held roles as the Washington columnist for&nbsp;Business &amp; Commercial Aviation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overhaul &amp; Maintenance&nbsp;monthly magazines. In 2021 she was honored with the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and was the 2004 recipient of the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalism Excellence Award. She also has been a recipient of an Aerospace Media Award for business aviation (2022) and NBAA Gold Wing Award (2003, 2024). Lynch graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

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The Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (DOT OIG) is faulting the FAA’s and DOT’s oversight of their purchase card programs, estimating that about one-third of spending through those programs has lacked proper controls.
Under the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act, the DOT OIG is required to audit the DOT’s and FAA’s purchase card programs to guard against any illegal, improper, or erroneous use.&nbsp;The agencies use purchase cards for “micro-purchases” ($10,000 or below) for commercial supplies, construction, and services.&nbsp;
In fiscal year 2020, the government watchdog found that the DOT’s and FAA’s programs had insufficient controls in multiple areas and two years later said the programs were at a medium risk level. “With purchase cardholders spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year, strong internal controls are essential to ensure appropriate expenditures,” the DOT OIG maintained.
In the latest audit, the DOT OIG found: the agencies did not consistently meet management requirements; neither the DOT nor the FAA could provide evidence that program participants completed the required training on time; some cardholders lacked delegation of procurement authority (DPA), or their DPA spending limits did not match their purchase card limits; the agencies did not continually reassess accounts; and the programs lacked sufficient controls.
The DOT OIG looked at a sample of 107 transactions totaling $778,977 and found 45 were not in compliance with one or more required controls. In all, DOT and FAA employees made 384,527 purchase card transactions totaling about $364.9 million during fiscal years 2023 and 2024. Based on that and its sampling, the DOT OIG estimates that $123 million in purchases over the two years were made without following all controls, representing “funds that DOT and FAA could have put to better use.”
The watchdog made 11 recommendations for the agencies to improve oversight of these programs.

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Watchdog Warns of Lack of FAA Purchase Card Oversight

DOT OIG estimates as much as one-third of purchase card transactions did not have proper controls

A government watchdog is estimating that as much as one-third of the FAA and DOT’s purchase card transactions were made without proper controls.

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