[Senate Report 112-37]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
112th Congress Report
SENATE
1st Session 112-37
_______________________________________________________________________
Calendar No. 104
GOVERNMENT CHARGE CARD ABUSE PREVENTION ACT OF 2011
__________
R E P O R T
of the
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
to accompany
S. 300
TO PREVENT ABUSE OF GOVERNMENT CHARGE CARDS
July 18, 2011.--Ordered to be printed
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman
CARL LEVIN, Michigan SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware SCOTT P. BROWN, Massachusetts
MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri ROB PORTMAN, Ohio
JON TESTER, Montana RAND PAUL, Kentucky
MARK BEGICH, Alaska JERRY MORAN, Kansas
Michael L. Alexander, Staff Director
Beth M. Grossman, Deputy Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Troy H. Cribb, Senior Counsel
Carly A. Steier, Professional Staff Member
Nicholas A. Rossi, Minority Staff Director
Molly A. Wilkinson, Minority General Counsel
Anne F. Terry, Minority DHS Detailee
Trina Driessnack Tyrer, Chief Clerk
Calendar No. 104
112th Congress Report
SENATE
1st Session 112-37
======================================================================
GOVERNMENT CHARGE CARD ABUSE PREVENTION ACT OF 2011
_______
July 18, 2011.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Lieberman, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 300]
The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 300) to prevent
abuse of Government charge cards, having considered the same,
reports favorably thereon with amendments and recommends that
the bill (as amended) do pass.
CONTENTS
Page
I. Purpose and Summary..............................................1
II. Background and Need for the Legislation..........................2
III. Legislative History..............................................4
IV. Section-by-Section Analysis......................................4
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................6
VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................7
VII. Changes to Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............7
I. Purpose and Summary
For more than a decade, federal agencies have issued charge
cards to many of their employees, enabling those employees to
charge travel and other job-related expenses, with the
government ultimately footing the bill. Although the use of
these charge cards saves the government both time and money
when compared with the traditional, highly bureaucratic system
of paper submissions and reimbursements, a small number of
employees have abused their travel and charge cards, causing
the government to incur unnecessary and sometimes fraudulent
expenses. S. 300 would address this problem by requiring
agencies to, among other things, adopt better internal controls
over the use of these cards, perform credit checks on potential
recipients of cards issued for travel purposes, and
appropriately discipline employees who misuse charge cards.
II. Background and Need for the Legislation
Since 1998, federal departments and agencies have utilized
government charge cards through the General Service
Administration's (GSA's) SmartPay program. GSA offers two main
types of charge cards: purchase cards and travel cards. Agency
employees use purchase cards to buy commercial goods and
services on behalf of their agencies, and the agencies pay the
bills for those cards directly to their contractor bank.
Employees use government travel cards to pay for official
travel expenses. Depending on the particular card, the bill
might be sent to the employee, who then pays it and obtains
reimbursement from his or her agency, or the contractor bank
bills the government directly.
Agencies use government charge cards as a low-cost method
to streamline government acquisition and travel processes.
According to GSA, it costs nothing for agencies to obtain
charge card services, but the use of the cards has generated
more than $1 billion in gross agency rebates over the past 10
years under contractual provisions requiring the credit card
companies to pay rebates, also known as refunds, to agencies
based on amounts charged to the cards.\1\ GSA also estimates
that agencies avoid an estimated $1.8 billion in agency
administrative processing costs annually by using charge cards
instead of paper-based procurement processes.
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\1\According to GSA, in fiscal year 2010, agencies made
approximately 98.9 million transactions and charged $30.2 billion using
SmartPay charge cards, creating $325.9 million in rebates.
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Although the program has been highly successful, it has
suffered from recurring cases of waste, fraud, and abuse.
Numerous Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports over
the last decade have identified inadequate and inconsistent
controls across federal agencies with respect to both purchase
and travel cards.\2\ The lack of adequate management has led to
the waste of millions of dollars in taxpayer money on
fraudulent, questionable or unnecessarily expensive purchases.
Additionally, late or non-payment of travel card bills by
federal employees triggers contractual provisions allowing the
vendor banks to reduce rebates, causing the government to
forfeit millions of dollars in lost rebates.\3\
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\2\ See, e.g., GAO, Purchase Cards: Control Weaknesses Leave DHS
Highly Vulnerable to Fraudulent, Improper, and Abusive Activity, GAO-
06-1117 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 28, 2006); GAO, DoD Travel Cards:
Control Weaknesses Resulted in Millions of Dollars of Improper
Payments, GAO 04-576 (Washington, D.C.: June 9, 2004); GAO, Purchase
Cards: Increased Management Oversight and Control Could Save Hundreds
of Millions of Dollar, GAO-04-717T (Washington, D.C.: April 28, 2004);
GAO, Purchase Cards: Steps Taken to Improve DOD Program Management, but
Actions Needed to Address Misuse. GAO-03-156 (Washington D.C.: Dec. 2,
2003); GAO, Travel Cards: Internal Control Weaknesses at DoD Led to
Improper Use of First and Business Class Travel, GAO-04-88 (Washington,
D.C.: Oct. 24, 2003); GAO, Purchase Cards: Control Weaknesses Leave
Army Vulnerable to Fraud, Waste, and Abuse, GAO-02-844T (Washington,
D.C.: July 17, 2002); GAO, Purchase Cards: Control Weaknesses Leave Two
Navy Units Vulnerable to Fraud and Abuse, GAO-02-32 (Washington, D.C.:
Nov. 30, 2001).
\3\For example, in one review, GAO found that the Army collected
only $635,000 of a possible $3 million in rebates in fiscal year 2001
due to untimely payment of accounts. GAO, Travel Cards: Control
Weaknesses Leave Army Vulnerable to Potential Fraud and Abuse, GAO-03-
169 (Washington, D.C.: Oct. 11, 2002) at p. 17.
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GAO issued a report in March 2008 entitled, Governmentwide
Purchase Cards: Actions Needed to Strengthen Internal Controls
to Reduce Fraudulent, Improper, and Abusive Purchases.\4\ This
report found that, despite previous GAO reports on this issue
and new regulations, various government agencies still lacked
adequate internal controls over government purchase cards,
leading to waste, fraud, and abuse. Using a statistical sample
of purchase card transactions, GAO estimated that nearly 41
percent of the transactions failed to meet basic internal
control standards, and GAO found numerous instances of
fraud.\5\ For example, one cardholder used the purchase card
program to embezzle over $642,000 over a period of six years
from the Department of Agriculture.\6\ A postmaster at the U.S.
Postal Service used his government purchase card to
fraudulently subscribe to two internet dating services from
April 2004 to October 2006.\7\
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\4\GAO-08-333 (Washington D.C.: March 14, 2008).
\5\Id. It is worth noting that GAO did not assert that 41 percent
of the charges were improper; rather, the failure to follow internal
control standards raised the risk to the government of waste, fraud and
abuse. GAO's investigation was not designed to determine the overall
extent of fraudulent, improper, or abusive charge card transactions.
\6\GAO 08-333, supra note 4, at p. 7.
\7\Id.
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The Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act is based
largely on GAO's recommendations for preventing this recurring
waste, fraud, and abuse. The bill mandates a consistent set of
core internal controls for every agency to utilize to prevent
and detect improper use of government charge cards. For
example, it mandates the use of systems, techniques, and
technologies to prevent or identify improper purchases. These
measures could include use of controlling merchant codes to
prevent a card from being used at a business that does not
provide goods and services that are appropriate to the function
for which the card is issued. The measures could also include
utilizing statistical machine learning and pattern recognition
technologies that assess the risk of every transaction.
Commercial credit card issuers currently use these technologies
to flag purchases that do not fit normal purchasing patterns
for particular cardholders.
The Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act also
requires each agency Inspector General to periodically conduct
risk assessments of agency purchase card and travel card
programs and perform periodic audits to identify potential
fraudulent, improper, and abusive use of government charge
cards. GAO and agency Inspectors General have successfully used
techniques like data mining to reveal instances of improper use
of government charge cards. Having this information more
routinely available would help strengthen and maintain a
rigorous system of internal controls to prevent future
instances of waste, fraud, and abuse with government charge
cards.
In addition, GAO's investigations often have found
inconsistent or nonexistent consequences for federal employees
who misused or abused government charge cards.\8\ The
Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act requires agencies
to adopt a disciplinary policy to better ensure that employees
who abuse government charge cards face consistent and
appropriate consequences, including dismissal where
appropriate, thus creating a deterrent effect that will prevent
future misuse.
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\8\See,. e.g., GAO-08-333, supra note 4, at p. 7; GAO-06-1117,
supra note 2, at pp. 3, 10-11; GAO-04-717T, supra note 2, at pp. 2-3.
11-12.
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The Committee urges federal agencies, in implementing the
requirements of the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention
Act, to review and utilize best practices for running their
purchase card and travel card programs. In this respect, GAO's
Audit Guide: Auditing and Investigating the Internal Control of
Government Purchase Card Programs provides a useful summary of
the best practices for establishing and monitoring internal
controls for government purchase card programs.\9\
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\9\GAO-04-87G (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 1, 2003).
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III. Legislative History
The Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2011 was
originally introduced in the 111th Congress as S. 942 by
Senator Chuck Grassley on April 30, 2009, and was referred to
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Chairman Lieberman, Ranking Minority Member Collins, Senator
Carper, and Senator Begich cosponsored the bill. On May 20,
2009, the Committee favorably reported S. 942 by voice vote. S.
942 passed the Senate by unanimous consent on October 7, 2009
and was subsequently referred to the House Oversight and
Government Reform and House Armed Services Committees. Neither
Committee took further action on the bill.
Senator Grassley reintroduced the bill this Congress on
February 8, 2011. S. 300 was again referred to the Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Chairman Lieberman,
Ranking Member Collins and Senator Tester cosponsored the bill.
On April 13, 2011, the Committee favorably reported S. 300 by
voice vote. Senators present for the vote were Lieberman,
Levin, Akaka, Carper, Begich, Collins, Coburn, McCain and
Johnson (Wisconsin).
IV. Section-by-Section Analysis
Section 1. Short title
Section 1 designates the name of the act as the
``Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2011.''
Section 2. Management of purchase cards
Subsection (a) requires the head of each executive agency
that issues and uses, for purposes of official government
procurements, purchase cards and convenience checks--checks
written against a purchase card account--to establish and
maintain safeguards and internal controls to ensure effective
management, such as: keeping a record in each executive agency
of each holder of a purchase card issued by the agency for
official use; assigning each cardholder an approving official;
requiring reconciliation of the charges by the purchase
cardholder and approving official with supporting
documentation; ensuring payments are made promptly for valid
purchases; retaining records of each purchase card transaction
in accordance with government policies on disposition of
records; invalidating purchase cards for employees who cease to
be employed by the agency or transfer to another unit of the
agency; and providing appropriate training to cardholders.
Subsection (b) provides that no later than 180 days after
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shall review the existing
guidance and, as necessary, prescribe additional guidance
governing the implementation of the safeguards and internal
controls required by subsection (a) by executive agencies.
Subsection (c) requires the head of each executive agency
to provide for appropriate adverse personnel actions or other
punishment, including dismissal of the employee as appropriate,
in cases in which an employee of the agency violates agency
policies implementing the guidance required by subsection (b)
or makes improper, erroneous, or illegal purchases with
purchase cards or convenience checks. This subsection also
requires that the guidance required by subsection (b) mandate
that each head of an executive agency with more than
$10,000,000 in purchase card spending annually, and each
Inspector General of such an executive agency, on a semi-annual
basis, submit to the Director of OMB a joint report on
violations of the guidance.
Subsection (d) requires the Inspector General of each
executive agency to conduct periodic assessments of the
agency's purchase card or convenience check programs to
identify and analyze weaknesses; perform analyses or audits, as
necessary, of purchase card transactions designed to identify
potentially illegal, improper, erroneous, and abusive uses of
purchase cards, patterns of such uses, and categories of
purchases that could be made by means other than purchase
cards; and report to the Director of OMB on the implementation
of recommendations made to the head of the executive agency to
address findings of any analysis or audit of purchase card and
convenience check transactions.
Subsection (e) provides that the term ``executive agency''
has the meaning given such term in section 4(1) of the Office
of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. Sec. 403(1)),
except as provided under subsection (f).
Subsection (f) clarifies that subsections (a) through (d)
do not apply to the Department of Defense, which is subject to
similar requirements under 10 U.S.C. Sec. 2784. This subsection
makes further conforming amendments to 10 U.S.C. Sec. 2784 in
order to harmonize military and civilian regulations. The
subsection also requires the Inspector General of the
Department of Defense to conduct periodic assessments similar
to those required in subsection (d) and to submit, jointly with
the Secretary of Defense, a semi-annual report to the Director
of OMB.
Section 3. Management of travel cards
Section 3 amends Section 2 of the Travel and Transportation
Reform Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-264; 5 U.S.C. Sec. 5701
note) by adding a new subsection that requires the head of each
executive agency that issues travel cards (charge cards issued
for use on official government travel) to its employees to
establish and maintain internal control activities over travel
charge cards, including: maintaining a record of each holder of
a travel charge card issued on behalf of the agency for
official use; monitoring rebates and refunds based on prompt
payment, sales volume, or other actions on travel charge card
accounts; conducting periodic reviews to determine whether each
travel charge cardholder has a need for the travel charge card;
and providing appropriate training to travel card holders.
The new subsection also requires that each executive agency
ensure its contractual arrangement with travel charge card
issuing contractors contains a requirement to evaluate the
creditworthiness of an individual before issuing that
individual a travel card, and that no individual is issued a
travel card if that individual is found not creditworthy as a
result of the evaluations. (This same requirement has been
imposed for several years on agencies on a year-to-year basis
by annual appropriations Acts.) An agency is not precluded from
issuing a restricted use travel card or pre-paid card when the
individual lacks a credit history or has a credit score below
the minimum credit score established by OMB. The section
requires the Director of OMB to establish a minimum credit
score for determining the creditworthiness of an individual
based on rigorous statistical analysis of the population of
cardholders and historical behaviors.
Additionally, this section requires that, not later than
180 days after the date of enactment, the Director of OMB must
revise, as necessary, guidance on the management of travel
cards. The section further requires that each agency take
appropriate adverse personnel actions, including removal where
appropriate, against employees who have failed to comply with
travel charge card terms or agency regulations, or have
committed fraud with respect to a travel charge card. The
section also requires that each head of an executive agency
with more than $10,000,000 in travel card spending annually,
and each Inspector General of such an executive agency, on a
semi-annual basis, submit to the Director of OMB a joint report
on such violations. Additionally, the section requires the
Inspector General of each federal agency to conduct periodic
assessments of travel card programs and controls.
Section 4. Management of centrally billed accounts
Section 4 requires the head of an executive agency that has
employees who use a travel charge card that is billed directly
to the United States Government to establish and maintain
internal control activities to compare items on an employee's
travel voucher to items paid for using a centrally billed
account. This section also requires the OMB Director to
prescribe guidance for implementing internal control
requirements for centrally billed accounts not later than 180
days after the date of enactment of this Act.
Section 5. Construction
Section 5 provides that nothing in the Act shall be
construed to excuse the head of an executive agency from the
responsibilities established in 31 U.S.C. Sec. 3512 (relating
to executive agency accounting and other financial management
and plans), or in the Improper Payments Act of 2002 (31 U.S.C.
Sec. 3321 note).
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact
Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has
considered the regulatory impact of this bill. It concurs with
the Congressional Budget Office that the bill contains no
intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would not affect state, local,
and tribal governments. The enactment of this legislation will
not have significant regulatory impact.
VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate
April 26, 2011.
Hon. Joseph I. Lieberman,
Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S.
Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 300, the Government
Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2011.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Matthew
Pickford.
Sincerely,
Douglas W. Elmendorf.
Enclosure.
S. 300--Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2011
S. 300 would require each executive branch agency to
establish controls on the use of government credit cards. The
bill would require each agency's inspector general (IG) to
assess the risk of illegal or improper credit card use and to
conduct periodic audits to identify potentially fraudulent
activities. The bill also would allow agencies to dismiss
employees who are found guilty of misusing government credit
cards.
CBO estimates that implementing S. 300 would cost less than
$500,000 a year, subject to the availability of appropriated
funds. The bill also could affect direct spending by agencies
not funded through annual appropriations, such as the Tennessee
Valley Authority and the Bonneville Power Administration;
therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. CBO estimates,
however, that any net increase in spending by those agencies
would not be significant. Enacting S. 300 would not affect
revenues.
Under current law, agencies must take certain actions to
manage the use of government credit cards, including
establishing policies and procedures, conducting oversight, and
penalizing unauthorized use of government cards. Most of the
provisions of S. 300 would codify current policies and
practices. Based on information from the Office of Management
and Budget (which sets procurement policy), the General
Services Administration (the contract administrator for federal
credit cards), and several agency IGs, CBO estimates that
implementing the bill would add a small amount of
administrative costs to the oversight of the use of government
charge cards.
S. 300 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal
governments.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Matthew
Pickford. This estimate was approved by Theresa Gullo, Deputy
Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
VII. Changes to Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by
S. 300 as reported are shown as follows (existing law proposed
to be omitted is enclosed in brackets, new matter is printed in
italic, and existing law in which no change is proposed is
shown in roman):
TITLE 10--ARMED FORCES
Subtitle A--General Military Law
Part IV--Service, Supply, and Procurement
Chapter 165--Accountability and Responsibility
* * * * * * *
SEC. 2784. MANAGEMENT OF PURCHASE CARDS.
(a) * * *
(b) Required Safeguards and Internal Controls.--Regulations
under subsection (a) shall include safeguards and internal
controls to ensure the following:
(1) * * *
* * * * * * *
(11) That each purchase cardholder and individual
issued a convenience check is assigned an approving
official other than the cardholder with the authority
to approve or disapprove transactions.
(12) That the Department of Defense utilizes
effective systems, techniques, and technologies to
prevent or identify fraudulent purchases.
(13) That the Department of Defense takes appropriate
steps to invalidate the purchase card of each employee
who--
(A) ceases to be employed by the Department
of Defense, immediately upon termination of the
employment of the employee; or
(B) transfers to another unit of the
Department of Defense immediately upon the
transfer of the employee unless the Secretary
of Defense determines that the units are
covered by the same purchase card authority.
(14) That the Department of Defense takes appropriate
steps to recover the cost of any erroneous, improper or
illegal purchase made with a purchase card or
convenience check by an employee, including, as
necessary, through salary offsets.
(15) That the Inspector General of the Department of
Defense conducts periodic assessments of purchase card
or convenience check programs to identify and analyze
risks of illegal, improper, or erroneous purchases and
payments and uses such risk assessments to develop
appropriate recommendations for corrective actions.
(c) * * *
(d) Semi-Annual Report.--The Secretary of Defense and the
Inspector General of the Department of Defense, shall submit to
the Director of the Office of Management and Budget on a
semiannual basis a joint report on illegal, improper, or
erroneous purchases and payments made with purchase cards or
convenience checks by employees of the Department of Defense.
At a minimum, the report shall include the following:
(1) A description of each violation.
(2) A description of any adverse personnel action,
punishment, or other action taken against the employee
for such violation.
(3) A description of actions taken by the Department
of Defense to address recommendations made to address
findings arising out of risk assessments and audits
conducted pursuant to this section.
TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION REFORM ACT OF 1998
(Public Law 105-264; 5 U.S.C. Sec. 5701, note)
* * * * * * *
(a) * * *
* * * * * * *
(h) Management of Travel Charge Cards.--
(1) Required safeguards and internal controls.--The
head of each executive agency that has employees that
use travel charge cards shall establish and maintain
the following internal control activities to ensure the
proper, efficient, and effective use of such travel
charge cards:
(A) There is a record in each executive
agency of each holder of a travel charge card
issued on behalf of the agency for official
use, annotated with the limitations on amounts
that are applicable to the use of each such
card by that travel charge cardholder.
(B) Rebates and refunds based on prompt
payment sales volume, or other actions by the
agency on travel charge card accounts are
monitored for accuracy and properly recorded as
a receipt of the agency that employs the
cardholder.
(C) Periodic reviews are performed to
determine whether each travel charge cardholder
has a need for the travel charge card.
(D) Appropriate training is provided to each
travel charge cardholder and each official with
responsibility for overseeing the use of travel
charge cards issued by an executive agency.
(E) Each executive agency has specific
policies regarding the number of travel charge
cards issued for various component
organizations and categories of component
organizations, the credit limits authorized for
various categories of cardholders, and
categories of employees eligible to be issued
travel charge cards, and designs those policies
to minimize the financial risk to the Federal
Government of the issuance of the travel charge
cards and to ensure the integrity of the travel
charge cardholders.
(F) Each executive agency ensures its
contractual arrangement with each servicing
travel charge card issuing contractor contains
a requirement to evaluate the creditworthiness
of an individual before issuing that individual
a travel charge card, and that no individual be
issued a travel charge card if that individual
is found not creditworthy as a result of the
evaluation (except that this paragraph shall
not preclude issuance of a restricted use
travel charge card or pre-paid card when the
individual lacks a credit history or has a
credit score below the minimum credit score
established by the Office of Management and
Budget). The Director of the Office of
Management and Budget shall establish a minimum
credit score for determining the
creditworthiness of an individual based on
rigorous statistical analysis of the population
of cardholders and historical behaviors.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law,
such evaluation shall include an assessment of
an individual's consumer report from a consumer
reporting agency as those terms are defined in
section 603 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
(G) Each executive agency utilizes effective
systems, techniques, and technologies to
prevent or identify improper purchases.
(H) Each executive agency ensures that the
travel charge card of each employee who ceases
to be employed by the agency is invalidated
immediately upon termination of the employment
of the employee.
(I) Each executive agency utilizes, where
appropriate, direct payment to the holder of
the travel card contract.
(2) Guidance on management of travel charge cards.--
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment
of this Act, the Director of the Office of Management
and Budget shall review the existing guidance and, as
necessary, prescribe additional guidance for executive
agencies governing the implementation of the
requirements in paragraph (1).
(3) Penalties for violations.--
(A) In general.--Consistent with the guidance
prescribed under paragraph (2), each executive
agency shall provide for appropriate adverse
personnel actions to be imposed in cases in
which employees of the executive agency fail to
comply with applicable travel charge card terms
and conditions or applicable agency regulations
or commit fraud with respect to a travel
charge, including removal in appropriate cases.
(B) Reports on violations.--The guidance
prescribed under paragraph (2) shall require
each head of an executive agency with more than
$10,000,000 in travel card spending annually,
and each inspector general of such an executive
agency, on a semi-annual basis, to submit to
the Director of the Office of Management and
Budget a joint report on violations or other
actions covered by subparagraph (A) by
employees of such executive agency. At a
minimum, the report shall set forth the
following:
(i) A description of each violation.
(ii) A description of any adverse
personnel action, punishment, or other
action taken against the employee for
such violation or other action.
(4) Risk assessments and audits.--The Inspector
General of each executive agency shall--
(A) conduct periodic assessments of the
agency travel charge card program and
associated internal controls to identify and
analyze risks of illegal, improper, or
erroneous travel charges and payments in order
to develop a plan for using such risk
assessments to determine the scope, frequency,
and number of periodic audits of travel charge
card transactions;
(B) perform periodic analysis and audits, as
appropriate, of travel charge card transactions
designed to identify potentially improper,
erroneous, and illegal uses of travel charge
cards;
(C) report to the head of the executive
agency concerned on the results of such
analysis and audits; and
(D) report to the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget on the implementation of
recommendations made to the head of the
executive agency to address findings of any
analysis or audit of travel charge card
transactions or programs for compilation and
transmission by the Director to Congress and
the Comptroller General.
(5) Definitions.--In this subsection:
(A) The term ``executive agency'' means an
agency as that term is defined in subparagraphs
(A) and (B) of section 5701(1) of title 5,
United States Code.
(B) The term ``travel charge card'' means any
Federal contractor-issued travel charge card
that is individually billed to each cardholder.