Summary: Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO studied the difficulties surrounding the government's use of credit cards, focusing on the key benefits and problems associated with the Diners Club business travel management program.
GAO found that: (1) agencies believed that they benefited from employees' use of individual charge cards; (2) some agencies reduced employees' need for travel advances and improved the government's cash flow by using the charge card; (3) the charge card enabled employees to carry less cash when travelling on business; (4) most agencies did not take full advantage of program benefits; (5) agencies did not survey employees to assess their concerns about the charge card program; (6) some employees used charge cards for unauthorized purposes or did not pay their bills on time; (7) some agencies experienced increased interest costs because they had problems reconciling their centrally billed accounts; and (8) the automatic teller machine (ATM) program may not be the most cost-effective method of issuing cash travel advances and needs improved controls.
