Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) John Hamre has approved new procedures
to process, pay and audit temporary duty travel in the Department of Defense.
Beginning October 1, 1995, reimbursements for temporary duty travel will be
automatically sent via electronic funds transfer (EFT) directly to the bank
accounts of servicemembers and DoD employees. Unless employees have
established separate EFT accounts for travel pay, the amount will be sent to
the account used for payroll purposes. There will still be provisions to make
emergency or short notice cash or check payments at the local level should the
need arise.
Travelers will receive a notice in the mail for each travel reimbursement sent
by electronic funds transfer.
This procedure will allow the Department to issue travel reimbursements in a
more timely fashion: EFT reduces the time required to process and issue a
government check by one to two days. It is also a safer method to issue
reimbursements.
At the beginning of October as well, the Department will eliminate the
requirement to obtain paper nonavailability statements to justify reimbursement
for commercial lodging and per diem payments. In a third travel-related
change, DoD will implement random sampling procedures for auditing temporary
duty travel vouchers. This approach will replace the current total audit of
vouchers with those using statistical sampling techniques. These procedures
should speed the processing of travel vouchers, leading to greater customer
satisfaction.
These measures are part of the ongoing effort within the Department of Defense
to reengineer temporary duty travel, kicked off in January 1995. The overall
program is focused on using the best business practices currently available in
the commercial arena.
