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The Office Management and Budget has issued draft guidance intended to centralize government charge card policies, establish minimum standards and implement best practices.

In addition to stating and clarifying existing guidance, such as procedures for eliminating payment delinquencies, charge card misuse and fraud, the draft guidance now requires agencies to do a credit check on an employee before issuing a charge card. Current cardholders would not be required to have their credit checked.

A credit check will prevent travel or purchase cards from being issued to federal workers lacking financial trustworthiness, according to OMB. The Office of Personnel Management's Center for Federal Investigative Services is initiating a reimbursable process to provide credit scores to agencies.

If a worker's credit rating score is too low, restrictions will be placed on his or her use of a charge card, including reducing the overall dollar limit for the card, setting individual purchase limits and restricting ATM use.

The draft guidance consolidates and updates current government charge card requirements issued by OMB, the General Services Administration, the Treasury Department and other agencies. It establishes a single location for updating new regulations or adding amendments for all executive departments and agencies.

Comments on the draft guidance must be submitted to OMB's Office of Federal Financial Management by March 28. Once the guidance is finalized, it will be published in an OMB circular or as an addendum to an existing circular.

Government charge cards help reduce administrative costs in purchasing goods and services, but have been abused by federal workers who have used them to buy everything from designer briefcases to prostitutes to photos of Elvis Presley.

Members of Congress introduced legislation last month aimed at to curtail the abuse through improved oversight of the programs.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was encouraged by the draft proposal and is looking forward to working with OMB to ensure that guidelines and safeguards are enacted to avert federal purchase card waste and abuse.

Sarah Hawkins, an OMB spokeswoman, said the draft guidance will address the current environment where multiple agencies are issuing competing and contrasting interpretations of the current draft guidance. "We are establishing a clear and standard set of guidance for all government managers," she said.

COMMENTS

• Dave, at least in DoD the card displays "for official use only". I fired an employee recently for travel card abuse. Recommend you take a long and hard look. GovExec.com reader Posted June 24, 2005 8:52 AM
• This problem represents only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. When I was first required to have an American Express card years ago for official business travel, I questioned the security of such a card. I, and others in federal law enforcement, were uncomfortable with having to provide personal information, including our home addresses, to a private company, especially knowing how drug dealers, mobsters, and other criminals have the ability to obtain such information from low paid clerical workers at these companies. I don't tell many people what I do, and my wife and kids are also careful in telling people what I do for a living, for security reasons. My concerns, and those of others, fell on deaf ears then, and I see the situation hasn't changed since. Also, when you travel, you show hotels a government credit card that identifies you as a federal employee. So much for covert operations, and operational security! This information should be closely guarded, in order to protect government employees and their families. These systems are too easy to compromise, as has been shown repeatedly over the years. We should only have to provide private credit card companies with our office addresses and contact information, at the very most, to get these cards. As usual, however, I doubt that anyone in authority is listening, or cares about the concerns of those of us who actually are affected by these decisions. GovExec.com reader Posted March 24, 2005 12:03 PM
• I am REQUIRED, by my agency, to have a government travel card. In addition, my position requires me to have a purchase card. Does this mean that a person could not be hired for this job or by this agency that can not pass a credit check? If so, all vacancy announcements will now have to read that a condition of employment is being able to pass a credit check. I think that this is wrong! I know that there are some problems out there that need to be adressed. However, I do not feel that this is the way to eliminate the problems. Maybe a mandatory split-pay option for travel would significantly reduce late payments. Barbara Posted March 17, 2005 8:28 AM