DOD Business Transformation: Defense Travel System Continues to Face Implementation Challenges
GAO-06-18
Published: Jan 18, 2006. Publicly Released: Jan 18, 2006.
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Highlights
The Department of Defense (DOD) has been working to develop and implement a standard end-to-end travel system for the last 10 years. Over the past several years numerous GAO reports and testimonies have highlighted problems with DOD's travel practices that resulted in wasteful spending of millions of dollars. In response, the department has noted that the Defense Travel System (DTS), in part, will help correct these problems. Because of the widespread congressional interest in DTS, GAO initiated the audit under the statutory authority of the Comptroller General of the United States. The objectives of the audit were to (1) determine if DOD effectively tested key DTS functionality, (2) ascertain if DTS will correct the weaknesses previously identified, (3) identify the challenges that remain, and (4) identify opportunities to streamline DOD's travel process.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | To improve the department's management and oversight of DTS and streamline its administrative process for travel, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Project Management Office--Defense Travel System (PMO-DTS) to effectively implement the disciplined processes necessary to provide reasonable assurance that (1) requirements are properly documented and (2) requirements are adequately tested. | The Program Management Office-Defense Travel System (PMO-DTS)issued updated policies and procedures in June 2010 that were utilized in the testing of Release 8 of the Defense Travel System. Our analysis conducted in September 2010 of the documentation for Release 8 of the Defense Travel System disclosed that the proposed release was tested (including verification and validation) in accordance with the updated policies and procedures and the release performed as intended with respect to: (1) Unit Testing, (2) Integration Testing, (3) System Testing, (4) System Qualification Testing, and (5) Operational Testing. Further, consistent with the revised policies and procedures, the PMO-DTS also... maintained documentation demonstrating the proposed release: (1) underwent a peer review process to ensure that the testing documentation complied with the updated policies and procedures, (2) had testing activities performed by an independent group, and (3) was evaluated to determine whether the required testing processes were effectively implemented. Additionally, the PMO-DTS provided a report demonstrating that updated testing policies and procedures were implemented during the recent DTS Release 8 testing. These actions served to provide DOD management with greater assurance that DTS Release 8 contains all necessary requirements and will function as intended. Further, if these required actions are consistently followed by the department, they should help ensure that any further software releases of the Defense Travel System will provide the system users with the desired functionality.
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| Department of Defense | To improve the department's management and oversight of DTS and streamline its administrative process for travel, the Secretary of Defense should direct the PMO-DTS to properly test new or modified system interfaces so that the intended functionality is properly operating prior to a software update being provided to DTS users. | In January 2006, we reported that DOD needed to verify the reliability of the interfaces between the Defense Travel System (DTS) and DOD business systems relied on to authorize and process DOD travel. We recommended that the Secretary of Defense direct the Project Management Office-Defense Travel System (PMO-DTS) to properly test new or modified system interfaces to validate that the intended functionality was properly operating prior to providing a software update to DTS users. To address our recommendation, in 2006, the PMO-DTS engaged the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) Enterprise Level Test Group to independently verify and validate the reliability of the...
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| Department of Defense | To improve the department's management and oversight of DTS and streamline its administrative process for travel, the Secretary of Defense should direct the PMO-DTS to require that all commercial travel offices adhere to the department's policy on the use of premium-class travel, even in those instances where it is listed as the only available airfare. | In January 2006, we found that while DOD has taken actions to improve controls related to premium-class (first class or business class) travel, including improvements in controls related to the Defense Travel System (DTS), we identified instances in which premium-class travel continued to occur without the proper authorization. More specifically, our analysis identified at least 68 cases of improper premium-class travel. These improper premium-class travel cases occurred, in part, because DOD's commercial travel offices (CTO) did not notify the traveler when portions of their travel legs were coded as premium-class, and therefore, required approval by a higher authority. We recommended...
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| Department of Defense | To improve the department's management and oversight of DTS and streamline its administrative process for travel, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, as well as the heads of all DOD agencies, to reemphasize that travelers are to justify exceptions from department policy and the importance of the authorizing officials not approving any travel authorization in which exceptions are not properly justified. | The department updated Appendix O-Temporary Duty (TDY) Travel Allowances of the Joint Travel Regulations in March 2009 to provide specific guidance on the various types of travel expenses that are authorized and those expenses that are not authorized. Appendix O identifies the types of exceptions from department policy for which travelers must provide justification and obtain approval from the authorizing official (AO). For example, Appendix O guidance states that the traveler must use coach-class for all official travel, unless premium-class accommodations are justified and approved prior to travel by the appropriate AO. There are separate sections of the appendix that are applicable to...
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| Department of Defense | To improve the department's management and oversight of DTS and streamline its administrative process for travel, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, as well as the heads of all DOD agencies, to routinely monitor, such as on a quarterly basis, information on the number and cost of processing travel vouchers outside of DTS and initiate action to eliminate funding for legacy systems, where applicable. | DOD officials acknowledged that the department does not know the total number of manual travel vouchers that are processed by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service that should be processed through DTS. As a result, the department cannot ascertain the total universe of travel vouchers that are eligible to be processed through DTS or the savings that could be realized through electronic travel voucher processing. In June 2010, we met with DOD officials and they acknowledged that the problem still existed. The department has not developed the means, nor do they plan the develop the means to ascertain the number of vouchers that are processed outside of DTS, that should be processed...
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| Department of Defense | To improve the department's management and oversight of DTS and streamline its administrative process for travel, the Secretary of Defense should direct the PMO-DTS to develop and implement the means to automate the approval of changes to authorized travel expenses where possible. | In January 2006, we found that DOD's business processes used by the Defense Travel System (DTS) provided that a traveler's supervisor was to serve as the authorizing official (AO) responsible for authorizing travel and approving payment for associated travel vouchers, including the burdensome process of identifying and approving any differences between actual expenses claimed on the travel voucher and authorized estimated expenses. To reduce the administrative burden on the AO, we recommended that the Secretary of Defense direct the Project Management Office-DTS (PMO-DTS) to develop and implement the means to automate the approval of changes to authorized travel expenses where possible....
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| Department of Defense | To improve the department's management and oversight of DTS and streamline its administrative process for travel, the Secretary of Defense should direct the PMO-DTS to consider the viability of using commercial databases to identify unused airline tickets, for which reimbursement should be obtained and help improve the assurance that the actual travel taken was consistent with the information shown on the travel voucher. | In January 2006, we reported that the Defense Travel System did not have the capability to determine whether a traveler did not use all or a portion of an airline ticket and obtained a refund for the unused portion of the airline ticket as required. To identify and obtain reimbursement for unused airline tickets, we recommended that the Secretary of Defense direct the Project Management Office-Defense Travel System to consider the viability of using commercial databases to identify unused airline tickets, for which reimbursement should be obtained and thereby help improve the assurance that the actual travel taken was consistent with the information shown on the travel voucher. To...
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| Department of Defense | To improve the department's management and oversight of DTS and streamline its administrative process for travel, the Secretary of Defense should direct the PMO-DTS to consider simplifying the display of airfares in DTS. |
The intent of this recommendation was to improve usability by reducing the amount of user effort required to identify flights that matched the traveler's schedule in order to meet mission needs. In June 2010, Defense Travel Management Office officials stated that the department was not going to made any additional changes to the manner in which flights were displayed to the traveler.
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| Department of Defense | To improve the department's management and oversight of DTS and streamline its administrative process for travel, the Secretary of Defense should direct the PMO-DTS to determine the feasibility of utilizing restricted airfares, where cost effective. | In January 2006, we reported that a Defense Travel System (DTS) requirement provided that only unrestricted airfares were to be displayed to the traveler, while other airfares (generally referred to as restricted airfares) may, in some cases, be less expensive than a given General Services Administration city-pair fare and other unrestricted airfares. We recommended that the Secretary of Defense direct the Project Management Office-Defense Travel System to determine the feasibility, where cost effective, of DTS displaying restricted airfares. To address our recommendation, in 2007, the Defense Travel Management Office contracted with the Logistics Management Institute to conduct a study...
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| Department of Defense | To improve the department's management and oversight of DTS and streamline its administrative process for travel, the Secretary of Defense should direct the PMO-DTS to work with Internal Revenue Service to develop an approach that will permit the use of automated methods to reduce the need for hard copy receipts to satisfy requirements to substantiate travel expenses. | In January 2006, we found that travel receipts were not always attached to a reimbursement travel voucher. Consequently, it was difficult to validate the accuracy of amounts DOD travelers claimed. We recommended that the Secretary of Defense direct the Program Management Office?Defense Travel System (PMO-DTS) to work with the IRS to develop an approach that will permit the use of automated receipts to substantiate travel expenses and thereby reduce the need for hard copy receipts. To address our recommendation, the PMO-DTS has been working with GSA, the federal entity responsible for promulgating travel policy for the federal government, and the IRS, to develop an approach that will...
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Defense cost controlDefense economic analysisInterfacesInternal controlsOperational testingPerformance measuresProgram evaluationProgram managementSystems analysisTravelTravel costsSystems testingProgram implementation