Fiscal Year 2020 Risk Assessment of VA’s Charge Card Program

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted an annual risk assessment of VA’s charge card program, evaluating the three types of charge cards—purchase cards (including convenience checks), travel cards, and fleet cards—for transactions during fiscal year (FY) 2020.The OIG conducted its risk assessment from November 2020 through March 2021. The team reviewed applicable VA policies, procedures, and other controls. The team also analyzed FY 2018 and FY 2019 charge card data to identify transactions or patterns of activity that represent potentially illegal, improper, or erroneous charge card purchases.The OIG determined that the purchase card program remains at medium risk of illegal, improper, or erroneous purchases, as previously assessed for FY 2019. Data analytics of purchase card transactions identified potential misuse of purchase cards. OIG investigations and reviews continue to identify patterns of purchase card transactions that do not comply with the Federal Acquisition Regulation and VA policies and procedures.The OIG also found that VA’s Travel Card Program and Fleet Card Program both remain at low risk for illegal, improper, or erroneous purchases. The risk assessment team assigned a low risk level to both programs primarily because they had no year-end spending surges. Additionally, a low percentage of travel card transactions had potentially unauthorized third-party payers, and the Fleet Card Program benefited from VA’s practice of obtaining refunds for sales tax paid on fuel purchases. Travel card transactions represented only about 1.4 percent of the $4.9 billion spent by VA on charge card transactions during FY 2020. Fleet card transactions represented only about 0.3 percent of that amount.