Issues included approvals by persons who did lacked authority and missing documentation for claimed expenses. Image: Hamik/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffAn inspector general report has called for tighter controls over the use of government-issued travel charge cards at OPM following an audit that found instances of charges not having proper approval and of employees drawing more in cash advances than allowed.
The report, a follow up to one in 2018 raising similar concerns, said that some of OPM’s policies regarding use of the cards are not current and not in compliance with OMB standards, for example regarding review of purchases and written penalties for misuse.
It said that in a sampling of 49 individually billed accounts, it found issues such as approvals by persons who did not have that authority, lack of documentation to support claimed expenses, and discrepancies regarding amounts charged. Similar issues were found in centrally billed accounts, and in a review of more than 1,100 cash advances, about a tenth were over the $300 per transaction limit.
Other issues included failure to document that users of the cards had completed the required training and failure to record when cardholders have left OPM or cards have been canceled, it said.
OPM management concurred with the report’s recommendations, although the IG noted that several of them were carried forward from the 2018 report; 16 of the 21 recommendations from that report remain open.
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