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National Guard and Reserve military personnel are not receiving timely or accurate reimbursements for some travel expenses, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.

That report (GAO-05-79) was unveiled at a hearing of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Management, Finance and Accountability Wednesday.

"National Guard soldiers experienced problems receiving appropriate travel and per diem reimbursement," said Rep. Todd Platts, R-Pa., the subcommittee chairman. "In light of our heavy reliance on Guard and Reserve troops to win the global war on terror, it is imperative that travel reimbursement and other management issues be resolved, and that our uniformed personnel be informed of the extensive work that has been done and continues to be done to address any problems."

The GAO applauded the Defense Finance and Accounting Service for hiring more than 200 people to deal with backlogs in processing travel vouchers. The report noted, however, that problems persist and present real-world dilemmas for soldiers.

"Guard soldiers in our case study units reported a number of problems they and their families endured due to delayed or unpaid travel reimbursements," the report said, "including debts on their personal credit cards, trouble paying their monthly bills and inability to make child support payments."

The study found that soldiers in Pennsylvania's 876th Engineer Battalion filed identical travel vouchers but received payments that ranged from nothing to $1,718. In another example, GAO found personnel in the Mississippi 20th Special Forces unit were erroneously charged for meals at a mess hall.

Patrick Shine, director of military and civilian pay services at DFAS, said the problems began with the massive call-up of reservists in 2003.

"This spike in travel claims temporarily overwhelmed our staff," Shine said.

He told the subcommittee that help was secured from contractors and military finance units. Ultimately, however, Shine said that several difficulties with travel reimbursements will be solved with the implementation of the Defense Travel System--an online process that will be simpler for users and administrators. DTS is scheduled to be available to reservists before the end of fiscal 2006.

GAO said the new system will not solve all of the problems.

"DTS is not currently able to process mobilized soldier travel authorizations and vouchers," the report said, "and identify and calculate late payment interest and fees."

COMMENTS

• I read the GAO Report - all 36 pages of it. It makes your hair curl - perhaps because I'm in the finance area. As for the comment about the Reserves/Active Service, as a retired reserve officer (not out of the Army/Nat'l Guard) I can fully concur with the previously stated sentiments. There is another dimension to this problem, though. GAO has once again pointed to the great divide between personnel systems that have $$ dimensions and the financial systems that process the resulting claims. When will the Admin types stop looking at this as no more than "Issue Orders on paper" to the soldier, and the finance types realize their "Treat this as a Finacial Transaction" approach to the resulting travel claim is not enough? Anytime a document directs someone to do something, and authorizes the government to spend money when that happens, neither approach is enough. Get the adjutant general types (G-1, etc) to stop thinking that orders are nothing more than direction to go from point a to point b. The $$ and strange numbers on that "piece of paper" are not just more "text". At the same time, for finance types three agencies removed from the traveller to treat that travel claim as "one more voucher to pay or reject" has produced a predictable outcome - chaos. This is not rocket science! GAO is right - (it does happen occasionally). Get these two competing fiefdoms to get their collective acts together. The problem is not just about the reservists/guardsmen. The same mentality exists for regular travellers in DOD. Put a standard administrative process in place to issue orders that addresses what can be paid in terms the traveller can understand, train the troops creating the orders how to do it right, and do the same for the finance types that have to decide how much is to be paid. We'll all be better off. GovExec.com reader Posted March 18, 2005 2:23 PM
• This article is once again producing the results of Reserve personnel working with Active Duty personnel. The Active Duty people do not want to mess with reservists. It has been that way forever and is not going to change any time soon. Once we stop the nonsense in Iraq this issue will go away, the solution will not be apparent and the Active Duty people will continue ignoring the reserves. Welcome to the real world!!! GovExec.com reader Posted March 18, 2005 9:05 AM