Business Process Reengineering: DOD Has a Significant Opportunity to Reduce Travel Costs by Using Industry Practices

GAO discussed the Department of Defense's (DOD) travel management processes and related costs for temporary duty travel. GAO noted that: (1) current DOD travel management processes are wasteful and burdensome and involve multiple travel agents, regulations, and voucher processing centers; (2) in fiscal year 1993, DOD spent over 30 percent of its temporary duty travel costs on processing travel vouchers; (3) DOD cannot identify its actual travel processing costs because its systems are highly decentralized and do not capture the necessary data; (4) leading private industry companies have been able to dramatically improve service and reduce processing costs by streamlining its travel management processes and adopting best practices; (5) DOD could significantly reduce its costs and streamline its travel management processes by adopting industry best practices; (6) although a DOD task force recommended that DOD adopt private industry best practices as part of its effort to reengineer its travel processes, it did not have sufficient information on DOD current processes to determine the impact of proposed changes on service or costs; and (7) DOD will need sustained commitment and oversight by top management to develop strong internal controls, ensure agencywide implementation, overcome its own internal culture, implement the task force's recommendation, and change its travel processes.