An NCUA Office of Inspector General review of the agency'spurchase and travel card program found questionable transactions,which prompted suggestions for improvements.

The report covered activity from Oct. 1, 2012 through Sep. 30,2013.

“We concluded that for individually billed account [IBA] travelcards, 1.65% of the non-travel related Merchant Category Code [MCC]transactions were questionable,” the OIG said in the report datedMarch 31. “We also concluded that for centrally billed account[CBA] purchase cards, less than 1% of the non-travel related MCCtransactions were questionable, and we found no exceptions relatedto CBA travel cards,”

According to the OIG, the NCUA issues travel cards to most of itsapproximately 1,260 employees.

“Federal employees are required to use their federal travelcharge cards for all expenses related to official government travelwhere merchants accept the card for payment,” the report read.

The OIG evaluated 15,000 MCC transactions to identify unusualmerchant codes or vendor names. In total, 903 transactions ofroughly $92,400 were considered unusual and required additionalexplanation.

“For each of these 903 unusual transactions, we inquired withthe cardholders and requested they provide a description of thetransaction(s), business purpose, a copy of the invoice, and anyassociated documentation related to a claim for reimbursement,which we later traced to the employees' travel reimbursementvouchers,” the report read.

After reviewing the documentation cardholders had provided, theOIG identified 108 improper transactions totaling about $9,700 innon-travel related transactions.

“We concluded these charges were improper because either thetransaction was for a personal non-business related expenditure, orthe employee could not provide satisfactory supporting evidence tosupport the transaction,” the report stated. “Examples of thesetypes of charges included commuter rail charges, professionalmemberships, and various insurance expenditures, such as travelinsurance.”

The OIG recommended that NCUA's management provide cardholderswith stronger annual transaction-specific training to ensure thatevery cardholder is aware of permissible charges.

In response, NCUA Executive Director Mark Treichel indicatedthat the agency is currently providing training on travel cards toeach new employee during orientation or as part of new examinertraining. According to Treichel, the NCUA plans refresher travelcard training for cardholders and supervisors in 2015 as part ofthe NCUA's Learn Center.

“We will continue to emphasize during employee training sessionsthe importance of the proper use of travel charge cards and expandour examples of expressly prohibited charges,” Treichel said in hisletter.