Reimbursed Travel

Commerce and FTC Generally Met Requirements but Some Improvements Needed Gao ID: GGD-95-32 January 26, 1995

Under federal regulations, government employees can accept payment of travel costs by nonfederal sources, such as private companies and universities, if the purpose of the travel is related to the employees' official duties and the acceptance of such travel does not present a conflict of interest. Federal agencies are required to establish procedures to ensure that these conditions are met before travel reimbursements are accepted. This report determines (1) how adequately the Commerce Department and the Federal Trade Commission controlled their employees' acceptance and reporting of travel funds paid by nonfederal organizations and (2) the implication of Commerce's denying the Office of Government Ethics access to its records of reimbursed travel in 1992.

GAO found that: (1) although Commerce generally met applicable requirements for accepting and reporting travel reimbursements, certain procedural improvements could be implemented in the receipt and reporting of these funds; (2) Commerce did not ensure that travel requests contained all of the required information, were prepared and reviewed before trips were approved, accurately disclosed the circumstances of each trip, or adequately documented the actual expenses reimbursed; (3) although FTC consistently met the requirements for controlling the acceptance and reporting of travel reimbursements by its employees, it could improve its reporting by better detailing the nature of events attended by FTC employees; (4) Commerce's decision to deny OGE access to its travel records was based on its view that OGE was not responsible for the applicable travel regulations; and (5) although Commerce changed its position and acknowledged that OGE did have the authority to review such records, the overall effect of Commerce's temporary denial of access was minimal.

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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