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Ethics, Credit Cards and Government Leaders

Travel Card

ER Spec pretending to be an accountant
DoD
Mon Feb 5, 2007 9:23 AM

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What is the harm to the Government if an employee uses their Travel card to rack up oodles of charges as long as the employee timely pays the bill?

Re: Travel Card

ER Spec
civilian agency
Mon Feb 5, 2007 9:31 AM
I don't pretend to speak for the legal office or for the travel people. However, when an employee receives the government travel card, he signs a statement that the card is not to be use for any personal charges. That probably includes massages, clothes or tickets to rock concerts. The "situational ethics" referred to in the article is certainly at play here. We may not know the reason for the restriction but, because we don't like it, we should be able to ignore it and use our own ethical standards. Our signature and obligation to live to these obligations are obviously meaningless in the eyes of some.

Re: Travel Card

Lead Staff Accountant
DFAS
Mon Feb 5, 2007 10:26 AM
This is really a response to a response. Don’t confuse following the regs with ethics, or disobeying them with unethical behavior. The “abuse” may not be unethical, but rather the restrictions may be unethical. I consider that the agreement was signed under duress. I was told, in so many words, that travel is part of my job, and I could get the card or use my own money. The travel is for government purposes, and the expenses are government expenses, but we must be responsible for the credit card bills. This makes us responsible for the government’s expenses until the travel office can finish processing our claims. I myself have been stuck with the tab for the government when the travel office screwed up the paperwork. The requirement for personal responsibility for government charges is itself potentially a violation of appropriations law. If I am going to have to assume responsibility for paying the credit card bill, then I expect to behave as if it is my card.

Re: Travel Card

Hard Worker
DOD
Tue Feb 6, 2007 12:23 PM
That's just the problem - people rack up oodles of charges and don't pay their bill IN FULL on the DATE DUE.

Re: Travel Card

Analyst
USDA
Mon Feb 12, 2007 12:51 PM
The card is to be used for government business only because it is taxpayer money being spent. To purchase personal items on the card shows, for the record, that taxpayer money can be spent on massages, clothes, etc. Even if you pay the bill for the "personal" purchases, it does not look right. Use your own personal card for your personal purchases, not the government card. Appearances count.

Re: Travel Card

CO
DOL
Wed May 23, 2007 8:21 AM
Taxpayer's Money? How do you figure? I am the one paying the bill when gov doesn't pay it on time. The bill comes in my name, not Uncle Sam! (which I pay regardless of having received payment from agency) so how do you figure it is taxpayer monies.

Ethics and Travel Cards

Mgmt Analyst
DoD
Mon Feb 5, 2007 9:28 AM

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It's too bad when articles are published about travel card abuse, that it isn't told that even when an Agency tries to punish the offendor, MSPB won't back up the Agency. If such information received as wide-spread attention as the offense, I dare say public outcry would see to it that Agencies were allowed to fire offenders. Come on, folks! If individuals cannot be ethical, they need to quit feeding at the public trough. This is OUR tax dollars at work.

Credit card abuse

Electronics Technician
Army
Mon Feb 5, 2007 9:46 AM

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Yes, ethical standards do come from the top. MSPB is not the top. Congress and the political appointees in the Executive branch are. Neither have shown high ethical standards over the years, especially Congress. Worse, Congress passes laws to hold Executive branch employees (as in hired, not appointed) to high standards, but exempts itself. That's called hypocrisy.
For example, the vast majority of purchase card holders are honest, but are treated like the few crooks who make headlines. The single-purchase spending limit has never been increased, so the purchase card will soon be useless, thanks to inflation and Congress's refusal to raise it. Our esteemed elected officials don't have the guts to kill the program, but they'll let it die by attrition.

No wonder Congressional ethics is considered an oxymoron.

Re: Credit card abuse

retired fed employee
DOD
Mon Feb 5, 2007 12:51 PM
Very well said. After keeping abreast of different federal issues, I have seen the decline of ethics that I never thought would happen. Just call me disenchanted. No one is held accountable for their actions. Will they ever be held accountable??

Credit card abuse not for everyone

Facilities Distribution Specialist
DOD Navy
Mon Feb 5, 2007 10:01 AM

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As a Federal Employee that had been authorized a Government credit card for travel purposes, I fully uderstood that it's use was not authorized for things other than official government business. I never used it for any other purpose as a sense of duty and honesty.

On the other side of the coin, a Federal employee that does not have a credit card will only receive 70% of his travel expenses up-front. Before I had gotten my credit card, I would have to choose between eating or staying in a decent hotel. The Federal government is not the quickest player when it comes to reimbursement of travel expenses. Often my personal credit card bill would come due before I received my reimbursement. After one incident where I paid my hotel bill in advance, I only had $35.00 to pay for meals, transportation to the training facility, and for tips. The training was for two weeks, I ran out of money in three days. I could not even pay for the gas for the rental car.3 months later, I was reimbursed.

Re: Credit card abuse not for everyone

Clerk
VA
Tue Feb 6, 2007 8:53 AM
I don't travel enough to get a travel card. The few times I've had to travel, I've had to go without eating so that I could pay for my hotel. I usually travel unexpectedly, so it is not my lack of planning. The whole travel card thing is ridiculous.

Re: Credit card abuse not for everyone

Admin Assistant
DOD
Mon Feb 12, 2007 10:28 AM
I agree with the VA clerk. Why force it on people and then have to police it? Let those who want to use their own card use it. Forcing someone with money problems to get yet another credit card only fuels the fire. If you can't get one on your own, then you can get the government one. Why does the government have to be in your personal business? Why be afraid that you'll use the wrong card and be reprimanded or fired? Let us use our own cards.

Travel Card

Retired Senior Manager
Navy
Mon Feb 5, 2007 10:04 AM

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I've never understood all of the outrage over personal charges on the travel cards. The government gets a rebate based on the total charges made on the cards. Therefore it is benefiting from any such "misuse." Unlike "purchase" cards, all charges made on travel cards are the sole financial responsibility of the card holder. So the issue ought to be whether or not the card holder is paying the bill every month and not what they are charging. The management oversight energy saved could then been spent reviewing "purchase" card buys, which are subject to fraudulent use and are paid directly by the government.

Appeal to Fed Circuit - abuse of discretion

HR specialist
USDA
Mon Feb 5, 2007 10:07 AM

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A surprisingly inaccurate decision by this Board. I would appeal to the Fed Circuit.

Mixing of personal and public business

Fisheries Biologist
Forest Service
Mon Feb 5, 2007 10:08 AM

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On my government travel card, the bill comes to my home address, I write a check on my personal checking account to pay the bill, and I request re-imbursement from the government. The Government is already mixing personal and public finances here. Since the person in this story did not request re-imbursement for the "inappropriate" charges, there was no money stolen form the Government. She was temporarily using the governments "good name" to secure credit, but the Government also uses her checking account to temporarily pay it's bills. As I understand the story, she broke the rules, and so merited some punishment, but perhaps the original punsihment was too severe. I think it's a lousy system. Why not have the Government pay it's credit card bills directly, instead of using my checking account as an imtermediate.

Re: Mixing of personal and public business

Intelligence Specialist
Dept of Army
Mon Feb 5, 2007 11:26 AM
In our organization, as well as many other military organizations, we use a system called Defense Travel System (DTS). While it's not the greatest, and certainly not user friendly, it is still a better option for us when we travel. We are required to use the split disbursement option. That means DTS sends money to the credit card company for all charges appearing on our bill and then DTS sends the balance to us. We also have the option to have DTS send more money to the credit card company if we know there are other purchases that haven't shown up by the time reimbursement is made. This means we have to keep track of what we spend, but it makes it much nicer to not have to worry about a large bill. We usually get our reimbursement within 3-5 days to our checking accounts via EFT.
Total Comments: 65
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