Footnote 1: A specific authorization covers a specific
trip. A blanket authorization covers a period of time, such as a year, and can authorize multiple trips.
Footnote 2: The GTR categorizes travel as being
domestic, non-foreign, or foreign for purposes of determining lodging and per diem rates.
Domestic travel is travel within the continental United States, non-foreign travel includes
the non-contiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii and the U.S. territories, and foreign travel
is any area outside the U.S. and its territories.
Footnote 3: Travelers on non-foreign or foreign travel
are given some latitude in their lodging expenses in that the combined amount claimed for
lodging and meals and incidental expenses cannot exceed the maximum allowance listed for
the per diem rate. We also considered the combined total of lodging and per diem in our analysis.
Footnote 4: DOF requested supporting documents from
the EM travelers for the 25 vouchers that we selected for our review. DOF elected to perform
a “special” audit of those vouchers before providing the vouchers and supporting documentation
to our office. Several of our sampled vouchers were also subject to DOF audit during the normal
course of business.
