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News | June 20, 2023

Reducing Travel Card Delinquencies: APCs, Supervisors, and AOs

This article provides instructions for Government Travel Charge Card (GTCC) Agency Program Coordinators (APCs), cardholder supervisors, and Approving Officials (AOs) in reducing travel card payment delinquencies.

APCs, supervisors, and AOs are responsible for ensuring traveler compliance with policy, which requires payment in full of GTCC balances by the due date and the use of split disbursement for both temporary duty (TDY) and permanent change of station (PCS) travel.

Overview

Travel card delinquencies have risen sharply over the past several years, more than doubling pre-pandemic amounts. This is especially true for long-term delinquencies which remain unpaid at 151 or more days after the date of the billing statement. Delinquent payments have a negative impact on the Department’s ability to accomplish its travel mission.

Travel card accounts that are delinquent are suspended from use, necessitating travelers’ use of personal funds. This reduces the funds paid to the DoD Components as rebates from Citibank, directly impacting projected funding sources. Uncollectable delinquent amounts that are written off by Citibank result in additional rebate deductions.

When written off as an uncollectible debt, Citibank issues the cardholder an IRS form 1099, reporting the amount as taxable income.

Agency Program Coordinator guidance

To reduce delinquencies, APCs should:

  • Ensure that training for your cardholders is up to date, including refresher training as necessary, emphasizing the requirements for timely payment and split disbursements.
  • Run and review the GTCC Management Reports as described in the GTCC Regulations, Section 0414:
    • Review the Aging Analysis Report and Delinquency Report to ensure cardholders with delinquent and pre-suspension accounts are notified of their responsibilities for timely payment. Refer to Section 0413 and the Annexes in the GTCC Regulations for additional information and sample notifications.
      • Report delinquency information to the cardholder’s supervisor for appropriate counseling and/or administrative actions.
      • Pay close attention to longer-term delinquencies greater than 90 days and ensure the balances owed are paid immediately.
    • Review the Account Activity Text Report and/or Visa IntelliLink reports to identify potential instances of unauthorized use or misuse. Unauthorized use or misuse is not reimbursable and is not included in the split disbursement portion of voucher payments, so must be paid by the cardholder out of pocket.
      • Contact the cardholder and ensure they make immediate payment for the amount owed.
      • Notify the cardholder’s supervisor concerning the unauthorized use.
    • Review the Account Listing Report to identify accounts for cardholders no longer in your organization.
      • Close accounts for cardholders no longer employed by the DoD.
      • If the cardholders have moved to another DoD organization, coordinate with that gaining APC to transfer the account into the correct/new hierarchy
      • Verify that the cardholder personal contact information (address, email, etc.) is complete and accurate.
      • Review cardholder temporary credit limits to ensure increases are necessary for current/ongoing travel requirements. If not, return those accounts to the default credit limits; doing so helps to negate unauthorized use.
  • Only place accounts in Mission Critical status when qualified. This should only be done when the cardholder is unable to submit a travel voucher due to technical, security, or other mission-related reasons. Placing a cardholder in Mission Critical status solely to prevent the account from being suspended due to lack of payment is not authorized. See the GTCC Regulations, Section 041307 for additional information.
  • Place the accounts of cardholders who have repeated instances of delinquency and/or misuse in an inactive status when not traveling.

Supervisor and Approving Official guidance

To reduce delinquencies, supervisors and AOs should:

  • Return TDY and PCS vouchers for correction when the cardholder has not included a split disbursement to Citibank to cover the charges made to their travel card in full. Split disbursement is mandatory for all types of travel.
  • Work with organization travel administrators to track the status of unsubmitted vouchers. The Federal Travel Regulation and DoD Financial Management Regulation require voucher submission within five working days of completion of TDY or arrival at the new permanent duty station for PCS travel.
  • Instruct travelers who are on long-term travel (over 45 days, for both TDY and PCS) to submit interim vouchers (or scheduled partial payments when using DTS) for each 30-day increment of travel, including split disbursement payments.
  • When notified by the APC, ensure counseling is provided and/or other appropriate administrative actions, including salary offsets, are taken to ensure travel card payment and traveler compliance with policy.
    • Notify your leadership/command of the delinquency and the steps being taken to correct it.
  • Refer to the GTCC Regulations, Section 040103, for additional information regarding supervisor/commander responsibilities for travel card misuse, which includes delinquency.

For additional information, refer to the GTCC Program Management webpage.