The majority of these are in the category of airfare and the difference between contract fares (YCA), capacity controlled contract fares (-CA) and non-refundable fares. Frequent travelers understand the differences pretty well, but the vast majority of federal travelers are infrequent travelers and do not always understand what the requirements are for the types of airfares they can select. In addition to this, travelers often think they can take business or first class fares.

There are limited reasons in the FTR where this can be acceptable, but in general they are not allowed for the routine traveler. Some of you may have seen this issue on the news this week where the General Accounting Office conducted a study of first class and business class trips. The result was some cases were found where there was either no valid FTR justification to take these type of flights, or there was fraud in taking them.

Many of the people taking them were higher graded government officials and as a result of spending more taxpayer money than was necessary, GAO recommended in their report that the FTR should be amended to institute better controls in requesting business class and first class fares. As you saw in this section of the class, travelers can fly business or first class when the government is not paying for it.

This is generally done by travelers using their frequent flier mileage points. Even though this is permissable, those travelers in the GAO report were not doing this, and even if they had done so, they were so high up the ladder that even the appearance of flying first class for them may not be worth the publicity.

We strive to educate our travelers in the correct procedures for flying for the government. And as can be seen, sometimes these points can make the national news.

Here is the link in the event you want to read the GAO Report:

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d071268.pdf

By Daniel Carozza

“The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily relfect the position of the Bureau of the Public Debt, or the U.S. Department of the Treasury.”

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.”

We were fortunate to be providing this service prior to E-Gov Travel (then eTS) and were involved in the change to this system. We lead the initiative for my agency and participated in IV&V testing of all the vendors before making our selection.  We were the first agency to place a E Travel task order with GSA. Our group does TDY and PCS (relocation) travel. We also have an interface in our accounting system for obligations and payments as well as staff that administer the travel charge card program. The material in this section very accurately describes the work we do in support of federal travel from a government agency perspective.

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.”

And then some technology came.  We started with a stand-alone travel system.  That was great.  Document preparers would put in trip dates and per diem tables within the system magically figured the per diem allowance for each day.  By this time the 75% rule was in place for the first and last days in travel status.   Expenses were selected from a drop down list and costs were entered.  Even the math was correct.  The system was just a glorified typewriter at this time because the documents had to be printed and the hard copies were routed to the traveler and approving officials for signature.  We still had to post the documents manually to the accounting system.

And then more technology came.  Our “First Team” worked diligently to get the system  to process documents electronically.  Routing lists were established that included budget examiners and approving officials.  Once a document was signed, it electronically moved on to the next individual in the routing list.  Audits within the system would flag expenses that needed justification.  An interface was developed between the travel system  and the accounting system.  No more, or very little, manual posting of documents to the accounting system.  Payments were made within two to three business days after being approved.  We were able to audit based upon a statistical sample of travel vouchers.

And then even more technology came.  E-travel service was mandated.  The electronic travel system used by my agency allows travelers to make common carrier and hotel reservations without picking up the phone in most cases.  Required receipts are attached to vouchers electronically by scanning or faxing them into the system.  All documentation is stored within the system and the need for printing paper copies has been eliminated.

I do love some technology.  I wouldn’t want to return to the old days of manually processing travel documents for anything.  We have come a long way!

By Pam Enlow

The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.

All of the eGov Travel Systems meet the minimum requirements which were defined by General Services Administration (GSA), who awarded the contract.  This article will be referencing GovTrip.

GovTrip forces the  travelers to comply with the Federal Travel Regulations (FTR).  The FTR governs the expenses the traveler is allowed to claim and the requirements which must be met in order to conduct official travel on behalf of the Government.  An agency can have travel policy which is stricter than the FTR.  GovTrip can be set up to reflect some of the agency’s requirements in addition to the FTR requirements. Pre-audits have been built into GovTrip to alert the traveler when they chosen incorrectly or have neglected to provide adequate information.

GovTrip has a built-in reservation module, which allows travelers/document preparers to select their airfare reservations.  Travelers must have a valid justification for selecting anything other than a government city pair fare.  The City Pair Program (CPP) is maintained by the General Services Administration (GSA).  Each year GSA awards the contracts to the airlines.   An approving official is alerted if the traveler did not use the CPP and the approving official makes the decision to approve/disapprove the trip.

GovTrip has electronic routing which allows the document to flow various levels of approval electronically, with no need for paper.  GovTrip also has conditional routing.  Conditional routing is set up by the administrator based on customer needs.  An example of conditional routing is the selection of travel to a foreign location.  The document will route to an approver who will make sure the traveler is aware of any on usual conditions, traditions or social etiquette which needs to be observed in the foreign city.

GovTrip is a very flexible and robust system and comes highly recommended.

by Debbie Sams

The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.

We are glad that our chosen E-Gov Travel vendor recently allowed more TMCs to participate in E-Gov Travel.

Prior to E-Gov Travel, we created our own independent contract for travel management services, since the existing GSA contract was non-mandatory.

One thing the travelers find cumbersome is the fee process. It’s difficult for the infrequent government traveler to know the difference between the TMC fee and the TAV (travel authorization and voucher) fee. Currently ETS uses a TAV fee for each completed voucher in addition to the TMC fee. In studying for this class, it was pointed out in the material that DTS has the ability to charge a management fee based on the number of vouchers created rather than charging a separate TAV fee to each traveler’s document. I hope this is applied later on to ETS as well.

By Daniel Carozza

“The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positon of the Bureau of the Public Debt, or the U.S. Department of the Treasury.”