OMB issues new charge card guidance
Draft guidance creates standardizes government policies and regulations to head off abuse and fraud.
The Office Management and Budget has issued draft guidance intended to centralize government charge card policies, establish minimum standards and implement best practices.
In addition to stating and clarifying existing guidance, such as procedures for eliminating payment delinquencies, charge card misuse and fraud, the draft guidance now requires agencies to do a credit check on an employee before issuing a charge card. Current cardholders would not be required to have their credit checked.
A credit check will prevent travel or purchase cards from being issued to federal workers lacking financial trustworthiness, according to OMB. The Office of Personnel Management's Center for Federal Investigative Services is initiating a reimbursable process to provide credit scores to agencies.
If a worker's credit rating score is too low, restrictions will be placed on his or her use of a charge card, including reducing the overall dollar limit for the card, setting individual purchase limits and restricting ATM use.
The draft guidance consolidates and updates current government charge card requirements issued by OMB, the General Services Administration, the Treasury Department and other agencies. It establishes a single location for updating new regulations or adding amendments for all executive departments and agencies.
Comments on the draft guidance must be submitted to OMB's Office of Federal Financial Management by March 28. Once the guidance is finalized, it will be published in an OMB circular or as an addendum to an existing circular.
Government charge cards help reduce administrative costs in purchasing goods and services, but have been abused by federal workers who have used them to buy everything from designer briefcases to prostitutes to photos of Elvis Presley.
Members of Congress introduced legislation last month aimed at to curtail the abuse through improved oversight of the programs.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was encouraged by the draft proposal and is looking forward to working with OMB to ensure that guidelines and safeguards are enacted to avert federal purchase card waste and abuse.
Sarah Hawkins, an OMB spokeswoman, said the draft guidance will address the current environment where multiple agencies are issuing competing and contrasting interpretations of the current draft guidance. "We are establishing a clear and standard set of guidance for all government managers," she said.