Employee Travel Claims
Supervisory Approval of Vouchers Gao ID: AIMD-97-44R March 11, 1997Pursuant to an agency request, GAO provided an opinion on the permissibility of the Department of Energy (DOE) eliminating supervisory approval of staff travel vouchers if alternative controls that provide the same level of assurance are implemented.
GAO noted that: (1) supervisory approval of staff travel vouchers can be eliminated if: (a) there are effective compensating controls to determine the reasonableness of travel claims and that the travel actually occurred; and (b) there is an effective review procedure to determine that the controls in the travel claim processing system are working as intended; (2) based on its understanding of DOE's proposal, GAO believes that DOE has adequately addressed these two conditions; and (3) therefore, GAO has no objection to its implementation.