The Department of Defense’s Defense Travel System
remains under development after ten years because
of key implementation challenges that cannot be
resolved solely within DTS, the Government
Accountability Office has said.
It called for department-wide action to address
problems in developing and implementing the system,
intended as an end-to-end solution to help correct
departmental travel practices that have resulted in
millions of dollars of wasted spending.
Testing key functionality to ensure that the system
will perform as intended has been particularly
problematic, according to GAO-06-18.
It said schedule slippages — between planned and
actual system deployment — resulted from critical
flaws that went undetected for too long.
A recent GAO analysis of selected requirements related
to the systems travel reservations component showed
ineffective testing to ensure that promised capability
has been delivered as intended, the report said.
The analysis found that DoD lacked reasonable assurance
that the system properly displayed flight and airfare
information, which it didn’t, and the problem surfaced
after deployment, GAO said.
It said while DTS has corrected some problems such as
one related to duplicate payment for airline tickets
purchased with centrally billed accounts, others remain,
such as those related to improper premium-class travel,
unused tickets that are not refunded, and accuracy of
travelers’ claims.
GAO cited the underutilization of DTS at sites where it
has been deployed and the development of needed
interfaces as key challenges facing DTS in becoming
the department’s standard travel system.
Further, DTS will need to develop interfaces with at
least 18 additional business systems, in addition to
the 36 interfaces it has already developed with various
DoD systems, GAO said, adding that it’s “no small feat.”
