Employees' Travel Claims (NWTRB) (Correspondence, 05/17/96,
GAO/AIMD-96-93R).
The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) requested GAO views on
whether its two proposed changes for processing employee temporary duty
travel claims conformed with GAO guidance. GAO noted that: (1) the NWTRB
proposal to change the threshold for submitting receipts for expenses
from $25 to $75 is acceptable as long as NWTRB implementation is
consistent with General Services Administration (GSA) travel
regulations; (2) GAO guidance does not specify a dollar threshold for
receipt submissions; (3) GSA has granted NWTRB a waiver of the
requirement to itemize expenses costing $75 or less if GAO concurs; (4)
NWTRB should require travelers to itemize on their travel vouchers all
expenses below the $75 threshold, since this information helps the
certifying officials to determine the validity of a claim and reduces
the risk of errors and irregularities going undetected; and (5) NWTRB
should consider modifying existing systems to improve its travel claims
processing.
--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM: AIMD-96-93R
TITLE: Employees' Travel Claims (NWTRB)
DATE: 05/17/96
SUBJECT: Temporary duty expense allowances
Travel costs
Transportation expense claims
Documentation
Federal regulations
Federal agency accounting systems
Federal employees
Internal controls
Claims processing
Accounting procedures
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Cover
================================================================ COVER
May 1996
GAO/AIMD-96-93R
Employees' Travel Claims (NWTRB)
(922227)
Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV
FTR - Federal Travel Regulations
GSA - General Services Administration
NPR - National Performance Review
NWTRB - Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
Letter
=============================================================== LETTER
B-271885
May 17, 1996
Mr. William D. Barnard
Executive Director
United States Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
1100 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 910
Arlington, VA 22209
Dear Mr. Barnard:
This letter responds to your February 23, 1996, request that we
provide you with our views on whether your two proposed changes for
processing employee travel claims conform to the requirements in
Title 2, "Accounting," and Title 7, "Fiscal Procedures," of GAO's
Policy and Procedures Manual for Guidance of Federal Agencies.
Specifically, you asked if (1) the threshold for which a traveler
would have to submit receipts for expenses could be raised to amounts
over $75 (currently, your procedures require the traveler to submit
receipts for all items costing more than $25) and (2) the traveler
could provide an aggregate amount for all expenses that individually
cost $75 or less.
As described in your letter, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
(NWTRB) is proposing to reengineer and streamline the procedures for
processing employee temporary duty travel claims in response to the
National Performance Review (NPR) initiative to simplify
administrative processes and reduce federal costs.\1 We support
initiatives to create a government that works better and costs less.
At the same time, we believe that agencies must protect the
government's interest.
To more fully understand your request, we contacted your staff and
discussed the proposal in more detail. However, we did not test your
current or proposed system. Consequently, our response only
addresses your proposal conceptually. It does not address whether
your present system can accommodate the proposed changes. Each of
the questions you asked is discussed in the following sections.
--------------------
\1 The Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP), in
line with the NPR initiative, established an interagency team in 1994
to address travel reengineering. The obstacles, suggested
improvements, and specific recommendations for temporary duty and
relocation travel are documented as guidance to agencies in JFMIP's
report, Improving Travel Management Government, December 1995.
RECEIPTS FOR EXPENSES MORE THAN
$25
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :1
Under your current procedures, the traveler must provide receipts for
any claimed expense in excess of $25. Under the proposal explained
in your letter, the traveler would only have to submit receipts for
expenses that are more than $75. However, as set forth in General
Services Administration (GSA) regulations, receipts would still be
required for lodging, common carrier charges in excess of $25, and
telephone charges regardless of the amount.
While Title 2 requires that all transactions be clearly documented
and that the documentation be readily available for examination,\2
GSA is responsible for issuing employee travel regulations, including
documentation requirements, which are published in its manual,
entitled Federal Travel Regulations (FTR). Since your request was
made, GSA revised the dollar threshold for requiring receipts for
expenses from amounts over $25 to amounts over $75. As pointed out
by your staff, JFMIP's guidance on travel management recommended
removal of the requirement to collect and review receipts for small
dollar amounts to enable and encourage agencies to institute
electronic, paperless processing of travel documents and to expedite
travel voucher preparation and processing. We have no objection to
your proposed change if your implementation is consistent with GSA's
guidelines as set forth in the FTR.
--------------------
\2 Titles 2 and 7 do not specify dollar thresholds for requiring
receipts to be obtained related to employee travel.
SUMMARIZE EXPENSES COSTING $75
OR LESS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :2
As explained in your letter, under the current system, GSA requires
that all expenses be itemized individually. With certain exceptions,
your proposal would allow the traveler to merely list an aggregate
amount of all expenses that individually cost $75 or less. GSA
granted you a waiver of the requirement to itemize expenses costing
$75 or less as long as we concur.
Title 7 requires that payments be based on sufficient evidence to
establish the validity of a claim. The officer certifying travel
vouchers for payment must ensure the (1) propriety of amounts
claimed, (2) legality of disbursements, (3) correctness of the
computations, and (4) accuracy of the facts stated on the voucher and
supporting documents.
Since Title 7 requires the validity of travel claims to be
established prior to certification for payment, we believe that
listing all expenses individually on the travel voucher helps satisfy
this requirement. Such a listing provides the official
administratively approving the voucher and the certifying officer
additional evidence for determining the reasonableness of the claims.
It also reduces the risk of errors and irregularities occurring and
going undetected.\3 Consequently, we believe that all claims under
the threshold should be itemized individually, even those items for
which a receipt is not required. Therefore, we suggest that NWTRB
modify its proposal to require travelers to list each expense
individually on the travel voucher.
Several agencies are modifying existing systems or implementing new
ones to improve the processing of temporary duty travel claims. They
are using available technologies to reduce paper generation, document
flow, and associated costs. You may wish to consider what other
agencies are doing in this area as you look for additional ways to
improve your system. For example, we have supported allowing the
travelers to retain the receipts documenting expenses if adequate
controls exist and the traveler is prepared to forward the receipts
to the appropriate officials if the voucher is selected randomly
under statistical sample or other review basis.\4 If this concept
were applied to your proposal, the traveler would need to keep all
required receipts for the specified retention period and provide the
receipts to reviewing officials upon request.
The contents of this letter were discussed with Michael Carroll of
your staff. I hope our comments are helpful to you in looking for
ways to streamline your travel processes and reduce the cost of
government. If you have any questions or would like to discuss these
matters further, please contact Bruce Michelson, Assistant Director,
at (202) 512-9366.
Sincerely yours,
Robert W. Gramling
Director, Corporate Audits
and Standards
--------------------
\3 As an example of an error under your proposed system, a traveler
could summarize taxi fares costing $17.99 as $71.99 on the travel
voucher by transposing the seven and the one on the voucher. The
approving official and certifying officer, who would generally expect
much lower taxi fare claims would have no basis to assess the
reasonableness of the claim. The approving and certifying official
would lose the capability for determining whether the claims over $25
but under $75 appeared reasonable under the circumstances.
\4 Two examples are Air Force Automated Travel System
(GAO/AIMD-95-74R, February 6, 1995) and Employees' Travel Claims
(DOD) (GAO/AIMD-95-171R, June 26, 1995).
*** End of document. ***