“Is there really a savings, or are we headed full circle”
I can remember years ago, when a federal employee, that was authorized official travel, would receive their travel authorization from the typewriter of the secretary, take that piece of paper to the ticket counter of the in-house TMC and make all of the travel arrangements. A few days later, you would receive days later a GTR would cover the cost of the ticket and the ticket printer would produce your itinerary, along with your information regarding your trip. It was nice to see a face, get to know your internal travel agent, as well as have the hands-on person available there to ask any questions and to make any changes, if necessary. Today, everything is done by the booking engine, we have become accustomed to booking our travel via our PC’s, pads or...
Payment Systems
On January 27, 1998, the government mandated the use of furnished travel charge cards and the implementation regulations were published the following year. The SmartPay program provides purchase, travel and fleet charge cards to over 350 government agencies and organizations; this is the largest program of its kind in the world. The SmartPay program is available to all government personnel subject to a minimum set of qualifications, Savings are achieved through accurate and prompt audits. In 2008 the SmartPay2 programs replaced the charge card program and will continue until the end of November 2018. It is contracted through Citibank, JP Morgan Chase and US Bank. Central Billed Accounts (CBA) are used for the purchase of air/rail/bus transportation and other...