Monitoring PowerTrack Payments for DoD Freight Transportation
Abstract
We determined whether DoD has established procedures to incorporate industry-wide best practices to minimize, identify, report, and recover improper payments for transportation services. The U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) is the single manager of the DoD global transportation function. In FY 2007, DoD transportation offices paid freight shippers $2.3 billion using PowerTrack, a U.S. Bank system DoD adopted in FY 1999 to pay electronically for freight services. DoD internal controls over PowerTrack payments were not adequate. We estimated DoD should have identified between $33.9 million and $68 million in duplicate and improper payments in FY 2007 for freight transportation. It also did not take necessary steps to recover overpayments before the General Services Administration post-payment auditors recovered the funds and returned them to the Treasury. These events occurred because DoD did not have processes in place to identify likely overpayments and did not take advantage of the resources available to monitor payments, identify overpayments, and immediately recover funds. We estimated that DoD could avoid or recover and retain up to $307.3 million in overpayments over the Future Years Defense Program by improving the process of monitoring PowerTrack payments. Additionally, the DoD Annual Financial Report did not contain information on duplicate or improper payments for freight transportation actually identified during payment reviews. As a result, the FY 2007 Annual Financial Report did not identify PowerTrack payments as being a high-risk area.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 09, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA499312
Entities
People
- Patricia A. Marsh
Organizations
- Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Defense