The 1998 Travel and Transportation Reform Act ordered the General Services Administration to require federal employees to use government charge cards, instead of personal credit cards, for travel expenses. Ideally the law would allow agencies to take advantage of rebates offered by charge card companies, officials said at a House hearing. The more the government uses travel charge cards, the more money agencies can earn back in rebates. But, while employees are using the government cards, they re not always using them correctly. Lagging agency oversight and employee misuse of the travel card program is not allowing the government to maximize this potential savings, said Rep. Stephen Horn, R-Calif., chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations.
Agencies can earn millions of dollars in rebates when they pay their bills early and electronically.
In most cases, agencies reimburse employees for travel expenses and then the employees pay the bills. During an investigation of travel charge card misuse at the Corporation for National and Community Service, eight employees admitted to using their cards for improper expenses, such as a hotel room in another state for family members, a family vacation, medicine for a parent and personal gifts. The corporation dismissed two of its employees. Two other employee dismissals are pending, one employee resigned, one employee retired, one employee got a letter of counseling and one employee received verbal counseling. Corporation IG Alan Boehm testified that several factors contributed to misuse of the travel cards, including giving cards to employees who don t travel and not reviewing travel card expenses.