GSA modifies mandatory travel charge card rules

Federal employees do not have to use their government-issued travel charge cards for most relocation expenses, the General Services Administration announced Friday.

GSA also announced several other changes to federal travel policy on Friday, as a mandate requiring travelers to use charge cards for most expenses takes effect governmentwide
on May 1.

The changes announced in the April 21 Federal Register include:

• Employees don't have to use charge cards for most relocation expenses, but they must use the cards for expenses covering househunting trips and en-route travel to their new homes. In addition, agencies do not have to reimburse employees for relocation expenses within 30 days, the reimbursement time limit for all other travel expenses.
• Until May 1, 2002, agencies have 30 days to alert employees to problems with their travel reimbursement claims. Beginning May 1, agencies must alert travelers to problems within seven days.
• Agencies now have two options for calculating late payment fees when they fail to reimburse a traveler within 30 days. Agencies can use the Prompt Payment Interest Rate, or they can pay a flat late charge based on an average of agency travel claims. Agencies must also pay travelers an amount equal to any late payment charge that the card company would have been able to charge if the traveler did not pay the bill on time.

Instituting the new travel charge card requirement has not been a smooth process. Congress passed the Travel and Transportation Reform Act in October 1998. GSA issued interim regulations in July 1999, setting the start date for the requirement as Jan. 1, 2000. But on Jan. 19, GSA announced that it would delay the requirement's start date until Feb. 29. Financial administrators at some agencies complained that they were having difficulty readying their systems for some of the new regulations' requirements, and the Defense Department lagged in issuing its own regulations for the new rule.

Then on March 3, the Defense Department announced that it was again delaying the start date until May 1. On March 30, GSA delayed the governmentwide start date until May 1, although some agencies had already begun requiring travelers to use their charge cards for expenses.

GSA says it is standing firm on the May 1 start date for mandatory charge card use at all agencies.