Summary: Pursuant to an agency request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) proposed new system for processing employee travel claims, focusing on: (1) the approval of travel disbursements; (2) supporting documentation; (3) post-payment statistical sampling methods; and (4) automated signatures. GAO noted that: (1) DOD planned training for processing employees travel claims should highlight the traveler's, approving official's, and disbursing officer's responsibilities; (2) certain techniques, such as selecting a large sample of transactions, should be implemented to compensate for the added risks associated with implementing the new travel claims processing plan; (3) the automated signature generation and validation system should comply with the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) and the data integrity requirement; and (4) DOD should emphasize the travel system during its annual review of internal controls, and determine if travelers are maintaining supporting travel documentation for the required records retention period.
