HUD’s Travel Cards Were Used for Unauthorized, Unsupported, or Ineligible Purchases in at Least 950 Instances Totaling More Than $95,000 | Office of Inspector General, Department of Housing and Urban Development

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) audited HUD’s travel and purchase card programs for fiscal year 2017 based on (1) our annual risk assessment of these programs and (2) our requirement under the Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 to periodically review government travel and purchase cards. The most recent travel card risk assessment found that there was a moderate risk of illegal, improper, or erroneous transactions occurring. The Act required inspectors general to perform analyses or audits of government charge card programs as necessary. Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD travel cards were used for unauthorized, unsupported, or ineligible purchases.

HUD’s travel cards were used for unauthorized, unsupported, or ineligible purchases in at least 950 instances totaling more than $95,000. Based on the results of a statistical sample we drew from a pool of 3,045 purchases with indicators of improper activity, we estimate that at least 944 government travel card purchases totaling nearly $91,000 were unauthorized or unsupported. We also identified 15 purchases totaling more than $5,000 that were ineligible. Further, there could be additional unauthorized or ineligible purchases in the universe of more than 89,000 purchases that were not part of our targeted audit pool of 3,045 purchases.

We recommend that the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (1) review the 17 travel cardholders with purchases that occurred without a travel authorization and the 6 travel cardholders with purchases that were not supported to determine whether they were allowable, proper, and paid in full by the cardholder, taking appropriate administrative actions as necessary; (2) perform an analysis of the remainder of the 3,045 potentially improper travel card transactions to determine whether they were allowable, proper, and paid in full by the cardholder, taking appropriate administrative actions as necessary; and (3) refer the 15 ineligible travel card transactions to the appropriate program office for appropriate administrative actions; and (4) strengthen internal monitoring efforts.

Recommendation	Status	Date Issued	Summary
2018-KC-0005-001-A	Closed	September 27, 2018	Review the 17 travel cardholders with purchases that occurred without a travel authorization and the 6 travel cardholders with purchases that were not supported to determine whether the purchases were allowable, proper, and paid in full by the cardholder, taking appropriate administrative actions as necessary. These unsupported purchases totaled $6,407. However, a total of $5,780 remains after deducting the duplicate amount of $627 addressed in Recommendation 1C.
2018-KC-0005-001-B	Closed	September 27, 2018	Perform an analysis of the 3,045 travel card purchases with indications that they were unauthorized or ineligible to identify potential violations and to address any unauthorized purchases identified. OCFO should perform a review of identified transactions to determine whether they were allowable, proper, and paid in full by the cardholder, taking appropriate administrative actions as necessary.
2018-KC-0005-001-C	Closed	September 27, 2018	Refer the 15 ineligible travel card transactions totaling $5,393 to the appropriate program office and obtain a response regarding what administrative actions were taken to resolve the violations. If no actions were taken, OCFO should request support to show why no corrective actions were taken.
2018-KC-0005-001-D	Closed	September 27, 2018	Strengthen internal monitoring efforts regarding government travel card use to identify potentially improper, illegal, or erroneous transactions. Such efforts should include data mining to detect instances of delinquency, fraud, and misuse.

Recommendation

Status

Date Issued

Summary

2018-KC-0005-001-A

Closed

September 27, 2018

Review the 17 travel cardholders with purchases that occurred without a travel authorization and the 6 travel cardholders with purchases that were not supported to determine whether the purchases were allowable, proper, and paid in full by the cardholder, taking appropriate administrative actions as necessary. These unsupported purchases totaled $6,407. However, a total of $5,780 remains after deducting the duplicate amount of $627 addressed in Recommendation 1C.

2018-KC-0005-001-B

Closed

September 27, 2018

Perform an analysis of the 3,045 travel card purchases with indications that they were unauthorized or ineligible to identify potential violations and to address any unauthorized purchases identified. OCFO should perform a review of identified transactions to determine whether they were allowable, proper, and paid in full by the cardholder, taking appropriate administrative actions as necessary.

2018-KC-0005-001-C

Closed

September 27, 2018

Refer the 15 ineligible travel card transactions totaling $5,393 to the appropriate program office and obtain a response regarding what administrative actions were taken to resolve the violations. If no actions were taken, OCFO should request support to show why no corrective actions were taken.

2018-KC-0005-001-D

Closed

September 27, 2018

Strengthen internal monitoring efforts regarding government travel card use to identify potentially improper, illegal, or erroneous transactions. Such efforts should include data mining to detect instances of delinquency, fraud, and misuse.