Have Card, Will Charge

October 1996

EXECUTIVE MEMO

Have Card, Will Charge

oes your family need a new car? How about a trip to Jamaica? Charge it. At least that's what some Air Force officials have done, using their government-issued American Express cards.

Nearly 800 airmen could face disciplinary action for charge-card abuse under the Uniform Code of Military Justice in 1996, according to Maj. Jane M.E. Peterson, writing in the July-August issue of TIG Brief, the official publication of the Air Force inspector general.

According to Peterson, the abusers fall into two camps: those who don't pay their bills on time every month and those who use their cards for things other than official business. The Air Force averaged more than $15 million a month in delinquent bills between January and November 1995, and the service is responsible for about half the total Defense Department delinquency debt. Twenty-five percent of Air Force bills were paid late, compared with 3 percent industry-wide.

Peterson believes the solution is formal briefings for airmen about the rules. Disciplinary action against abusers should be "swift and sure," she says. "When a member faces court-martial action for American Express abuse, it should be publicized."

It's hard to believe that the officer who used his government card to pay for a family trip to Disneyland or the airman who rang up $28,000 in charges traveling to Jamaica and Germany for pleasure didn't realize they were breaking the rules.