U.S. officials have licensed two more South Florida charter airline companies to carry passengers to Cuba, a move that will probably double the number of existing flights by the end of March.

One of the companies was created last year and is a newcomer to the Cuba charter business, while the other had been obliged to reapply after a suspension of its license last fall and the subsequent payment of a $61,000 fine.

The approvals for Miami International and Wilson International came after the General Accounting Office reported improvements at the agency that enforces the U.S. embargo on Cuba, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Controls (OFAC). OFAC has long complained of being severely understaffed.

When the GAO launched its inquiry last March, the report said, ``OFAC had not reviewed the carriers' contracts with Cuban entities or used the information submitted by the service providers for analysis or follow-up.''

As a result, OFAC canceled permits in September to both Wilson International, owned by Daniel Blanco, and another charter company based in Miami, C&T, owned by John Cabañas.

Blanco told The Herald that he had paid a $61,000 fine to Treasury for ``failing to file some papers on time,'' received a new OFAC license last month and hopes to resume flights by next month.

Cabañas said he paid a $125,000 fine but is still waiting for a new license. He declined comment on the reason for the fine, but a U.S. official said Cabañas had violated some of the highly complex embargo regulations.

The second company to receive a license from OFAC, Miami International Charters, is a new player in the Cuba charter business. It was established last June and is owned and managed by Pompano Beach accountant Richard Reposa.

Havana has last word

Reposa's and Blanco's new flights are likely to double the 8 to 10 charters now flying to Cuba per week, industry officials said, depending on decisions by Havana civil aviation officials.

``What Havana says is what we do. They tell us we can fly two or four times a week, Mondays or Thursdays, whatever. That's what we do,'' Blanco said.

Only two firms are now active in the business of arranging regularly scheduled charters to Cuba with large jetliners -- Airline Brokers Co., owned by Vivian Mannerud of Miami, and Gulfstream of Dania Beach. Twelve others have permits but are inactive or fly only occasional charters with smaller planes.

About 103,000 passengers flew aboard the charter flights last year under legal exemptions from the embargo, according to the New York-based U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.

Most of them were U.S. residents of Cuban extraction, visiting relatives on the island. The rest were island Cubans coming here to visit or migrate, or U.S. academics, journalists and business people visiting Cuba.

Reviewing the embargo

The General Accounting Office began studying the Cuba charter firms and other facets of the embargo last year in response to a request from Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ill., chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.

Burton asked about the legality and effectiveness of President Clinton's order permitting a resumption of direct flights to Cuba after a period when they were forced to go through third countries in retaliation for Cuba's 1996 downing of two Brothers to the Rescue planes.

The GAO reply to Burton, obtained by The Herald, said OFAC had not been reviewing the reports from the charter firms on a regular or timely basis because it lacked sufficient employees.

``Existing resources were being devoted to other enforcement matters, such as monitoring the operational requirements'' for the scores of agencies licensed to sell plane tickets and send humanitarian aid packages to Cuba, the GAO report said.

``OFAC officials also noted that the availability of further resources would result in enhanced oversight of the regulated community,'' GAO reported.

OFAC, with 60 staffers, is in charge of enforcing all U.S. economic sanctions against countries like Iran, Iraq and Libya.

The GAO report also touched on several previously known aspects of the 37-year-old U.S. embargo against Cuba. Among its findings was that the requirement between 1996 and 1998 that Miami-Havana flights touch down in third countries such as the Bahamas or Mexico was counterproductive to U.S. policies.

The report noted that when U.S.-based airplanes could fly the entire route, all fares went to U.S.-based companies, but after 1996 Cuban airplanes sometimes wound up making the last leg of the trip, giving the Cuban government a portion of the benefits.

U.S. Customs officials also found it harder to spot travelers making illegal trips to Cuba through third countries, the report said, since they were mixed in with travelers making the same trip legally.