VA Travel

The Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) total budget requests for travel, as found in the President's budget submissions to Congress, were formulated on the basis of the prior year's actual travel expenditures, adjustments for inflation, and expected initiatives or program changes. VA's travel budget requests have exceeded its actual travel expenditures by millions of dollars in recent years. VA reprogrammed excess travel funds, representing the difference between the amounts included for travel in VA's appropriations accounts and expenditures--more than $61 million for fiscal years 1993 through 1998. VA spent the excess travel money on general operating expenses, such as salaries and equipment. VA is required to inform the Senate Appropriations Committee before reprogramming more than $250,0000. VA did not inform the Committee of the excess travel reprogrammings because it did not consider switching excess travel funds to other object classes, in this instance, to constitute reprogramming. The Comptroller General's internal control standards require continuous supervision to ensure proper review and approval of employees' activities, as well as separation of duties and responsibilities in authorizing transactions. However, GAO found that VA's limited open travel authorizations were being issued to many employees without the required supervisory reviews to determine whether they were frequent travelers. GAO also found that VA's policy on delegated travel authority was being implemented without a system of controls to compensate for the lack of separation of duties inherent in self-authorization and approval of travel. At the 23 VA field facilities, GAO found five officials who authorized their own travel and approved their own travel vouchers that exceeded the applicable per-diem allowances without any justification.

GAO noted that: (1) VA's total budget requests for travel, as contained in the President's budget submissions to Congress, were comprised of estimates developed separately for six appropriations accounts and four revolving funds; (2) in formulating their travel budget requests, managers of these accounts and revolving funds reported that they generally considered the prior year's actual travel expenditures, adjustments for inflation, and expected initiatives or program changes; (3) VA reprogrammed excess travel funds, representing the difference between the amounts included for travel in VA's appropriations accounts and travel expenditures--over $61 million in total for fiscal year 1993 through 1998; (4) VA spent the excess travel funds on general operating expenses, such as salaries and equipment; (5) the Comptroller General's internal control standards require continuous supervision to ensure proper review and approval of employees' activities, as well as separation of duties and responsibilities in authorizing transactions; (6) GAO's review of travel files within four Veterans Integrated System Networks and four Veterans Benefits Administration regional offices found that VA's limited open travel authorizations were being issued to many employees without the required supervisory review to determine whether they were frequent travellers; (7) although neither the Federal Travel Regulation nor VA's travel policy defines frequent traveller, VA's travel policy chief defined a frequent traveller in the context of limited open travel authorizations as one who travels an average of at least once per month; (8) using this definition, GAO found that 220 of 239 employees at the 23 facilities with limited open travel authorizations were not frequent travellers; (9) GAO also found instances where administrative personnel were not obligating the funds associated with limited open travel authorizations in accordance with VA policy, resulting in a possible loss of control over expenditures; (10) GAO found that VA's policy on delegated travel authority was being implemented without a system of controls to compensate for the lack of separation of duties inherent in self-authorization and approval of travel; (11) at 23 VA field facilities, GAO found 5 officials who authorized their own travel and approved their own travel vouchers that exceeded the applicable per-diem allowances without any justification, contrary to VA travel policy; and (12) GAO found that no VA Central Office staff monitored the travel of field employees who had limited open travel authorizations or delegated travel authority.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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