Procurement, PFI andsupply chain management - DEFENCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 33

A new flexible friend

DMJ examines travel spending at the Australian Government's Department of Defence, with a special focus on the benefits of using the Defence Travel Card (DTC) for managing expenses during travelling.

The Defence Travel Card (DTC) is the first and most important deliverable of the Travel Improvement Project (TRIP) and is certainly a hot topic in defence. The Card is a means of paying for travel, and includes a number of new tools and processes for defence members. Most people working in defence travel at some point during their career; indeed, since TRIP began, coffee stations, mess halls and corridors in Australia have been alive with the sound of discussion about travel.

The Defence Travel Card is essentially a credit card used to cover the costs of travelling, issued by Diners Club in the name of the person travelling, but it does not affect their credit history or rating. It can be used to pay for airfares through Qantas Business Travel, car hire, accommodation, meals and incidental costs. Meal and incidental costs can be withdrawn as cash to buy items such as newspapers or a sandwich from a street vendor who does not accept a credit card. Where accommodation or a meal is provided, this must be identified in the budget calculator and will then be removed from the budget.

Every time a defence member undertakes business travel under the new model, they are expected to complete a travel budget using the budget calculator, which can be found on the travel site on the DEFWEB. This will tell the defence member how much they can spend for each type of expense, for example, accommodation, meals and incidentals. The amounts are based on the limits in the ADF (Australian Department of Defence) Pay and Conditions Manual and, in some cases, the employee may apply to get approval to spend more than these limits, if the costs are reasonable.

When the defence member gets back, they must verify their costs on the DEFWEB using the Card Management System and if the budget is exceeded, it will have to be repaid. Receipts are useful in this process and they help if there is a dispute with Diners Club about how much was actually spent. Is this another piece of bureaucracy gone mad or an efficient way of saving money while making work travel administratively easier?

The Department of Defence are committed to travel reforms; as with all their Business Improvement Projects, it is a confirmation of their commitment to continuous improvement in providing support to ADF capability. Of course, implementing these changes is not an easy thing to do in such a large organisation but, with more than 2,500 cards in use, defence members are increasingly realising the benefits of the new model, and becoming familiar with the processes and systems involved.

For example, many members are delighted that they will never again be out of pocket for their defence business travel expenses. They will never have to chase up their Travel Advance (TA) before departure, or personally pay the bill for an extended stay. The new model removes the need to undertake some of the 'extra' tasks previously performed when travelling on business, for example, transferring money from one account to another to make sure their own credit card doesn't bounce, or finding an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) from their own bank to avoid paying fees. Of course, the new model will not affect everyone in the same way because the Department simply has too many ways of doing things in defence for that to happen.

The last word goes to Sergeant Joanne Williamson, from the Directorate of Military Administration – Air Force, who said that the TC is a different but effective new way of doing business and commented: "The main challenge has been convincing personnel that using the DTC is a better way of doing business.

"Most users are concerned that doing all the tasks associated with the Card, including completing the budget calculator, booking travel, etc., and then acquitting the transactions on the Card Management System (CMS), is an additional impost on their already busy work schedules.

"Having said that, most users of the DTC are finding it less of an imposition than they expected and agree that, the more they use the Card, the easier and less time consuming the process becomes."

Sources:
http://intranet.defence.gov.au/travel/default2.htm.
http://www.defence.gov.au/defencemagazine/editions/011204/features/feature01.htm.
http://www.defence.gov.au/dpe/pac/216/7397_1.html.