John Hamre has approved new procedures to process, pay, and audit temporary duty travel. Unless employees have established separate EFT accounts for travel pay, the amount will be sent to the account used for payroll purposes. There will still be provisions to make emergency or short- notice cash or check payments at the local level should the need arise. Travelers will receive a notice in the mail for each travel reimbursement sent by electronic funds transfer. This procedure will allow the Department to issue travel reimbursements in a more timely fashion.
EFT reduces the time required to process and issue a government check by one to two days.
It is also a safer method to issue reimbursements. At the beginning of October, the Department will eliminate the requirement to obtain paper nonavailability statements to justify reimbursement for commercial lodging and per diem payments. In a third travel-related change, DOD will implement random sampling procedures for auditing temporary duty travel vouchers. This approach will replace the current total audit of vouchers with those using statistical sampling techniques. These procedures should speed the processing of travel vouchers, leading to greater customer satisfaction.