WASHINGTON -- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has successfully implemented the General Services Administration’s (GSA) E-Gov Travel Service, an online service that streamlines arranging reservations and managing expenses for government travel.
VA – the largest civilian federal agency, with nearly 240,000 employees – met its December 2007 deadline for agency-wide implementation, fulfilling a requirement of the President’s Management Agenda.
“This system will not only make travel arranging faster and easier for employees, but will help ensure they travel in the most cost-effective way,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake.
The E-Gov Travel Service, known as FedTraveler.com, eliminated three separate older travel systems. The service also provides training and help-desk support to customers. Approximately 70,000 VA frequent travelers will use FedTraveler.com to plan, book and track their travel arrangements as well as request and approve expense reimbursement. Additionally, the consolidated service supplies travel data to managers on the use of airlines, lodging and car rentals.
“FedTraveler.com strengthens control for managers by permitting them to identify spending trends,” said VA’s Deputy Chief Financial Officer Ed Murray. “In the future, we will have much greater insight into how our travel dollars are spent.”
GSA’s E-Gov Travel Service office awarded contracts in 2003 to Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and two other vendors to provide Web-enabled travel services to thousands of government business travelers. The online service will replace more than 250 travel services government-wide. VA contracted with EDS to implement the service.
