Agencies put $12 billion on plastic in '98

The federal government used charge cards for $12 billion in purchases and travel expenses in fiscal 1998, the General Services Administration has reported. That's 39 percent more than agencies put on plastic in 1997.

Federal purchasers conducted 49 million transactions on their travel, fleet and purchase cards in 1998. Purchase card use increased from $5 billion in fiscal 1997 to $8 billion in 1998. Travel card use was more level, rising from $3.6 billion in 1997 to $3.9 billion in 1998. Fleet cards were used for $201.4 million in expenses in 1998. GSA did not have data available on 1997 fleet card use.

Sue McIver, director of GSA's services acquisition center, said travel budgets tend to be the same from year to year, while more and more federal buyers are relying on purchase cards for small procurements. Still, purchase card growth slowed to 60 percent last year, after nearly doubling annually since 1989, when the purchase card program began with $460,612 in sales.

"We're starting to see a little less than a doubling, so it's slowing down," McIver said. "Still, more people are using the cards for more different things. What we're seeing in government is a realization that the controls are there [in credit card programs]. The reluctance of some people to using cards is being overcome by seeing other agencies using them."

Three agencies-the Army, the Navy and the Veterans Affairs Department-used purchase cards for more than $1 billion in expenses in 1998. Other charge card leaders included the Air Force ($737 million), other Defense Department activities ($245 million), Transportation ($263 million), Justice ($254 million), the Postal Service ($380 million), Interior ($277 million) and Agriculture ($212 million).

The number of cardholders in government continues to grow. Almost 1.6 million federal employees carry travel cards, 340,078 government buyers have purchase cards and there are 485,445 fleet card carriers.

At the end of this month, new charge card contracts go into effect, so all government cardholders should receive new cards before Nov. 30. Current cards will no longer be valid after Nov. 29.