Greater Charge Card Scrutiny Sought

The Bush administration is seeking from Congress authority to require that agencies “evaluate the creditworthiness” of employees before issuing them a government purchase charge card or government travel charge card, the latest development in a series of measures designed to crack down on misuse of the cards. Under the plan, no card would be issued to anyone who either “lacks a credit history or is found to have an unsatisfactory credit history.” The exception would be that agencies could still issue to them restricted-use charge, debit or stored-value cards. The request also seeks to require agencies to establish guidelines for disciplinary actions to be taken against fraudulent or abusive use of charge cards and specifies removal or modification of security clearances as potential penalties. The General Accounting Office has issued a string of reports describing misuse of government charge cards, although many of the cited instances involved uniformed military personnel, not federal workers.