GSA employees are charging far less on their travel and purchase cards than they did several years ago, an IG report has said of the agency whose spending on conferences, revealed in a 2012 report, triggered a cascade of restrictions government-wide.
The latest report resulted from one of those limitations, the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012, which requires IGs to annually conduct riskassessments of purchase card, combined integrated card, and travel card programs.
The report deemed purchase card use at GSA at medium risk of misuse, saying the agency lacks effective to: ensure the timely review and certification of the monthly credit card transaction report; provide an explanation for all identified questionable charges; or cancel a separated employee’s credit card in a timely manner.
Spending on those cards dropped by more than half from 2011-2013, from $69.3 million to $33.6 million.
The report deemed travel cards at low risk of misuse, citing management controls in place or under way; the report said the main remaining issue is lack of routinely updated training. GSA travel card spending fell from $17.1 million to $2.3 million over that period.
