H-P's Hurd's Pay Troubling: Activist

Perhaps the biggest bonus for being an H-P senior executive is getting access to the fleet of corporate jets for personal use. Shareholders forked over $136,000 for Mark Hurd's personal use of the aircraft in 2008. Todd Bradley's personal use of the aircraft cost $128,000 in 2008, which was actually down from $327,000 worth of personal travel in 2007.

H-P explains in its proxy filing that for "purposes of reporting the value of such personal usage in this table, H-P uses data provided by an outside firm to calculate the hourly cost of operating each type of aircraft. These costs include the cost of fuel, maintenance, landing and parking fees, crew and catering and supplies."

I think it's completely unacceptable for shareholders to pay for this personal use perk. However, this explanation left me with more questions about these numbers. Who is this outside firm that provided this estimated hourly cost? What in fact was the hourly cost? How do shareholders know that the hourly cost was a fair market rate? Finally, what were these personal trips?

I'm not even sure how it's possible for Todd Bradley to have racked up $327,000 worth of personal travel in 2007. Did he have time to show up for work that year? Call me a conspiracy theorist but isn't it possible that this outside firm vastly under-stated the actual (fair market) hourly cost of using these aircraft for personal use? How will shareholders actually know unless the company releases the flight logs and numbers?