Department of Health and Human Services: Controls over Travel Program Are Generally Effective, but Some Improvements Are Needed

In May 2004, the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Budget issued to all HHS component agencies a memo containing guidance on handling misuse of government travel charge cards. The guidance included a list of responsibilities for supervisors and managers. These responsibilities include establishing a process to verify that employees are appropriately using travel charge cards for authorized official travel, and ensuring that a process is in place and followed for reviewing activity reports as a means of identifying abuse and misuse. This directive requires the component agencies to establish procedures that would help identify misuse, but it does not specifically require that they periodically test a sample of travel cards. In its quarterly travel charge card report (third quarter, fiscal year 2004) to OMB, HHS reported that each agency program coordinator (APC) receives a Travel Business Report from the bank contractor that identifies the cardholder, date of purchase, merchant, and purchase amount. HHS reported that this report is used extensively by APCs to monitor improper purchases not associated with official travel expenses. APCs also have access to the bank's CARE system, an online system of cardholder activity. HHS reported that APC oversight in using the bank reports and CARE system has proven to be effective in maintaining a very low delinquency rate and to effectively monitor the proper use of the card. HHS also reported that APCs had identified 238 incidents of misuse, resulting in counseling sessions, letters of reprimand, or notices of misuse being issued to the cardholders. GAO concludes that the actions described are sufficient for identifying unauthorized travel card charges, as evidenced by the low delinquency rate and the instances of misuse that were identified. Therefore, GAO considers the recommendation closed, even though the procedures do not include periodically testing a sample of travel card transactions.

HHS's travel systems administrator distributed to travel approving officials and travel arrangers a document containing responsibilities and procedures. Approving officials' responsibilities include reviewing the validity of vouchers by, among other things, ensuring that all miscellaneous charges are properly documented. The procedures require that vouchers with non-documented or erroneous charges will be returned to the traveler without payment. Although the document does not specifically refer to per diem amounts and amounts credited on hotel bills, the requirements to review the validity of vouchers and ensure that miscellaneous charges are properly documented covers these amounts.

HHS's travel systems administrator distributed to travel approving officials and travel arrangers a document containing responsibilities and procedures. Responsibilities include ensuring that all original receipts are proper and that all original travel records are filed promptly in a secure area so that records will be readily available.