The review identified questionable transactions around the Super Bowl, St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco De Mayo. Image: Pla2na/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffAn inspector general audit has called on the DoD to tighten controls over travel charge cards in the hands of both civilian and military personnel, saying the department is missing “opportunities to identify and address misuse, abuse and potential fraud” by not did not effectively using a monitoring system.
The IG said that transactions that were not reviewed included some 7,800 at “known high-risk merchants” valued at nearly $390,000. That included purchases through an online app store of “personal subscriptions to television, music streaming, cellular phone plans, and cloud storage; various games; and mature-rated live video apps.”
The IG also said that despite actions DoD took in response to a previous audit pointing to use of travel charge cards at casinos, they found instances of cards used to withdraw cash—some of which the system had rejected.
Auditors also found more than 3,200 transactions worth more than $112,000 falling under the category of “bar, lounge, nightclub, tavern-alcoholic drinks” on or around holidays and major sporting events that were not reviewed because the monitoring system was not set to watch in particular for such spending at those times.
While official travel can occur on holidays “it is less likely” then, the report said, noting that in addition to official federal holidays, the review identified questionable transactions in that category around the Super Bowl, St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco De Mayo.
The department agreed with more than a dozen recommendations including to more closely monitor card use on or around holidays, and to strengthen the “casino rule” in the monitoring.
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