Army To Tighten Travel-Card Policy
Using the government travel card when changing duty stations will no longer be permitted, and Army officials said non-authorized use of the card will be met with harsher penalties.
Congress directed the Department of Defense to develop a comprehensive disciplinary policy for military personnel and civilians who misuse the Bank of America travel card. The policy is scheduled to be released soon, said Francis A. Rago, the U.S. Army Travel Card Program manager.
In addition to discontinuing use of the travel card during permanent change-of-station moves, a memorandum from the Office of the Secretary of the Army states that cards are to be deactivated prior to departure from duty stations, unless there is temporary duty en route.
Other changes to the travel card program, effective immediately, are:
–commands and activities should not use the card to pay for conference registration fees;
–charge cards of mobilized reservists will be transferred to active-duty agencies and deactivated until use is required;
–cardholders are not required to use their card for travel expenses associated with mission deployments.
At the installation level, one of the first changes program coordinators made was to put the accounts of infrequent travelers in a closed or inactive status.
“We started cutting our list of cardholders two years ago by deactivating accounts, and we have a success story now,” said Cynthia Jackson, from the Garrison Resource Management Service Center at Fort McPherson, Ga.
“The Army’s goal is for installations to keep dollars delinquent below 4.5 percent and account delinquencies below 3 percent, ours is at 1 percent,” Jackson said. “Creating a smaller list of cardholders allows us to keep tabs on our users. We know who is traveling, and what they are doing while in travel status.”
Fort McPherson is following the example set by DoD and the Army, by limiting their number of cardholders. The Army has cancelled more than 156,000 travel-card accounts since October, and currently has 280,000 open accounts. The number of accounts will fluctuate, and once current legislation is implemented, cards will not be issued to those who are not credit-worthy, Pentagon officials said.
Commanders and program coordinators have always had the responsibility of maintaining accountability of their cardholders, but according to the January memorandum from Army Secretary Thomas White’s office, travel-card coordinators now must review at least 10 percent of active accounts monthly. Investigating accounts is how Jackson said her organization keeps cardholders out of danger of nonpayment.
“If we notice that an account is 30 days late, we contact the commander or unit point of contact before the account goes past 60 days,” Jackson said.
The travel card program is simple, Rago said. Cardholders use the card only for official travel expenses, a claim for reimbursement is done immediately upon return, and split disbursement is used to pay their travel card bill.
When current legislation mandating split disbursement is implemented part of the reimbursement would be sent directly to Bank of America and the balance to the traveler’s bank account.
In any case, not paying the bill could affect the user’s credit and security clearance, Pentagon officials said. At Congress’ direction, there will be a government-wide quarterly report on the travel card program, to include a statistical summary of disciplinary action taken, officials added. Misuse will also go through security channels to determine whether there should be an impact on the cardholder’s security clearance, Pentagon officials said.
Three years ago DoD mandated that federal employees use the travel card for all official travel expenses such as lodging, transportation, rental cars and other allowable charges. That changed after July 2002, when a U.S. General Accounting Office audit found numerous incidents of cardholder abuse, lack of accountability and inadequate command emphasis.
“The GAO report correctly pointed out many problems with the Army’s implementation of the travel-card program, and the Army is increasing scrutiny and taking corrective actions to resolve misuse and delinquency in the Army Travel Card Program,” Pentagon officials said.
Since March, there were 6,869 delinquent travel card accounts, equating to $4.1 million in delinquency. Those numbers show progress in reducing the Army’s outstanding debt to Bank of America, officials said. Accounts that have past due balances made up 16.25 percent of Army accounts last year, but delinquent accounts now only total 5.24 percent.
Written by Staff Sgt. Marcia Triggs
