DoD Travel Cards: Control Weaknesses Led to Millions of Dollars Wasted on Unused Airline Tickets
Abstract
Ineffective oversight and management of the Department of Defenses (DOD) travel card program, which GAO previously reported on, have led to concerns about airline tickets DOD purchased but did not use and for which it did not claim refunds. GAO was asked to (1) determinewhether, and to what extent, airline tickets purchased through the centrally billed accounts were unused and not refunded and (2) determine whether DODs internal controls provided reasonable assurance that all unused tickets were identified and submitted for refunds. GAO makes 20 recommendations to DOD, including the following: evaluate the feasibility of requiring DOD personnel to purchase airline tickets with theirindividually billed travel cards, which would eliminate DODs risk of paying for unused tickets; implement procedures to systematically providereasonable assurance that all unused tickets purchased with the centrally billed accounts are refunded; and submit claims to the airlines torecover the $21 million in known unused ticketsDOD might be able to recover more than $100 million for unused tickets. DOD concurred with all 20 of our recommendations and stated that it had taken or will take actions to address these recommendations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- AD1157708
Entities
People
- Aaron Holling
- Beverly Burke
- Francine Delvecchio
- Gregory D. Kutz
- Jeffrey Jacobson
- John P. Ryan
- Julie Matta
- Quan Thai
- Robert J Cramer
- Sidney H. Schwartz
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office