Governmentwide Travel Management: Federal Agencies Have Opportunities for Streamlining and Improving Their Travel Practices

GAO discussed efforts for improving governmentwide travel management, focusing on a comparison of civilian federal agencies' and private-sector travel management practices. GAO noted that: (1) private-sector organizations have cut travel processing costs and time by consolidating travel management and processing centers, eliminating unnecessary review layers, simplifying travel processing, and streamlining and automating the expense reporting process; (2) many federal agencies have not identified their administrative travel costs and processes; (3) many federal agencies use numerous processing centers, require multiple travel documents, and lack automated systems that interface with their financial systems; (4) private-sector organizations approach travel cost reduction by assessing travel management as part of the larger financial management system, benchmarking themselves against other organizations, and instituting a common set of best practices; (5) legislative and regulatory changes may be needed for federal agencies to implement some travel management improvements; and (6) some agencies have implemented changes or initiated pilots to improve travel management.