The Department recently instituted a number of initiatives to improve oversight of the travel card program. For instance, the Department implemented a process to address travel card payment delinquencies in the 90-day and 120-day past due categories and to detect misuse. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) could not fully assess the effectiveness of most of these initiatives because they had not been in place long enough. However, OIG believes that if the initiatives are implemented as planned, they should decrease the rate of travel card payment delinquency and misuse.
Although the Department made a number of improvements, OIG found that it did not have a process in place to address delinquencies in the 60-day past due category before the cards are automatically suspended. OIG also found that the Department had not done enough to prevent and detect misuse of the cards. The Department was working, however, to establish a process to notify the Bureaus of Human Resources and Diplomatic Security and OIG about misuse and delinquency so that these bureaus could take appropriate action.
OIG found that the Department did not have controls in place to ensure that the administrative oversight of the travel card program was adequate. For instance, the Department needed to ensure that the program coordinators were managing the appropriate number of accounts, transferring or canceling accounts as needed, and identifying multiple accounts. Also, the Department had not developed measurable performance goals specific to the travel card program. Although performance goals are not required for this program, developing objectives and identifying performance measures are useful management tools.
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