My agency’s helpdesk not only supports our selected E-Gov Travel system, but all the associated questions that go along with it. A primary area is the Federal Travel Regulations. While seemingly straight-forward, there are many gray areas that are left to agency discretion. In fact, there are about 14 areas in the FTR that an agency must have a policy about such as the size of rental car to authorize, the amount of telephone calls to reimburse, the transportation method most advantageous to the government, etc. Often there is a something different to a policy question that makes it unique and has to be researched.
In order to accomplish this, we have a Departmental travel contact for the agency’s Bureaus that assits. After that, we verify with Civilian Board of Contract Appeals that adjudicates travel claims. Cases are submitted to a panel of judges for case determination. Ruling can be cited on decided cases as a basis for us or any agency to substiantiate or deny a travel claim.
Another recourse is to contact the General Services Administration directly since they promulgate the FTR.
Our Helpdesk staff are able to answer general travel policy questions from the FTR and/or agency policy. Since we have about 40 customers, this is a real challenge to keep all the separate agency items understandable for our agents. We also maintain a smaller staff to research complex travel policy questions as well as to ensure travel policy is correctly presented in our E-Gov Travel system. This area also creates and updates travel policy information on our customer websites as things change.
By Daniel Carozza
“The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Bureau of the Public Debt, or the U.S. Department of the Treasury.”