The Indian Health Service's Controls Were Not Effective in Ensuring That Its Travel Card Program Complied With Federal Requirements and Its Own Policy

The Indian Health Service's (IHS) travel card program, under which IHS employees are to use Government charge cards for nearly all payments of expenses related to official Government travel, did not always comply with Federal requirements and IHS's own policy. We identified 16 transactions (out of the 151 sampled transactions we tested) that did not comply with Federal requirements and IHS policy regarding proper travel card use. These errors occurred because, although IHS had controls in place to educate cardholders on the requirements for the use of the travel card, the controls did not always prevent misuse of the travel card. Additionally, whereas IHS had controls in place to monitor cardholders, those controls did not always identify noncompliance.

We recommended that IHS reemphasize the requirements for the use of the travel card to ensure that all travel cardholders are aware of the requirements. We also recommended that IHS ensure that travel card usage is adequately monitored for compliance with the travel card requirements.