Monitoring of Government Travel Card Transactions
Background
Citibank issues VISA branded SmartPay 2® cards to U.S. Postal Service employees for use on official travel. The Postal Service has travel card coordinators who monitor employee card use to identify transactions that could indicate misuse such as nontravel related purchases or unauthorized cash advances. There were 44,104 government travel cards issued to Postal Service personnel as of January 15, 2014. From April 1, 2012, through March 31, 2013, employees made 247,419 purchases totaling about $44.9 million and 8,793 cash advances totaling about $1.6 million.
Our objective was to determine whether Postal Service travel card coordinators were effectively monitoring government travel card transactions. Specifically, we evaluated the internal controls managed by the travel card coordinators, but did not determine the appropriateness of individual travel card transactions.
What The OIG Found
Postal Service travel card coordinators need to more effectively monitor cash advances. We judgmentally selected 1,832 cash advances for review based on noncompliance with Postal Service travel policy. We found travel coordinators did not identify for further review 1,260 transactions, totaling $215,466, that potentially did not comply with travel policy. In addition, travel card coordinators for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Postal Service Headquarters need to better monitor purchases. We judgmentally selected 486 purchase transactions based on potential noncompliance with travel policy and the amount of the transaction. We found 282 purchases totaling $55,516 that were not identified by coordinators for follow up with employees’ managers. We also determined the Postal Service did not process cardholder personnel changes in a timely manner to allow coordinators to monitor travel card transactions.
Although individual employee cardholders are responsible for repayment of all cash advances and payment for all items purchased with their travel cards, effective monitoring of travel card transactions reduces the risk of credit card delinquencies or negative publicity when employees misuse their travel cards.
What The OIG Recommended
We recommended the acting vice president, Controller, develop and implement written criteria for travel card coordinators to monitor travel card transactions and take action as appropriate. We also recommended the Postal Service establish procedures to ensure cardholder personnel changes are updated timely. R