The EPA does not review the rebates it receives for its employees’ use of agency-issued travel cards and therefore doesn’t know whether those rebates are accurate, an IG audit has found.
The agency further did not comply with requirement to return rebates to each appropriation account proportionally — or to the Treasury under certain circumstances — but instead selectively returned travel rebates to only a portion of the accounts, with the result that rebates totaling $240,375 in fiscal year 2014 and $283,789 in fiscal year 2015 were incorrectly returned to only four of 11 EPA appropriations, it said.
Also, EPA’s finance center “does not emphasize that supervisors should hold late-paying travel cardholders responsible, require maximum use of the travel card for official government expenses, or require that all expenses charged on the card are paid directly to the bank. These practices may result in more delinquent accounts and fewer bank rebate dollars.”
It said management agreed with all recommendations and provided planned corrective actions with milestone dates.
