Hearing Wrap Up: Failure to Replace Archaic Travel System is Latest Example of Costly DOD Mismanagement

WASHINGTON—The Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation held a hearing titled, “Getting Nowhere: DoD’s Failure to Replace the Defense Travel System.” Subcommittee members discussed how the Department of Defense (DOD) recently abandoned a years-long effort to replace its archaic Defense Travel System (DTS), which processes billions of dollars annually in travel payments for DOD civilians and servicemembers – hundreds of millions of which are improperly paid. Subcommittee members noted that DOD’s failure to replace its aging system bodes ill for DOD’s ability to effectively manage its finances and information technology going forward. Members on both sides of the aisle also blasted Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gilbert Cisneros – who decided to abandon the replacement effort – for failing to appear before the Subcommittee.

Key Takeaways:

DOD’s quarter-century old legacy travel system is diverting hundreds of millions of dollars annually from mission critical objectives, due to its inefficiencies and generation of improper payments.

• Elizabeth Field— Director of Defense Capabilities and Management at U.S. Government Accountability Office—testified that DOD has fallen short of implementing GAO-recommended solutions to halt the flow of improper payments: “DOD’s Office of Inspector General recently reported that DOD was not in compliance with requirements for reporting improper payments for the twelfth consecutive year, including as a result of issues associated with the DOD travel pay program. Defense officials also have stated that DTS is inefficient.”

DOD’s abrupt cancellation of a new travel system in which it had invested heavily speaks to broader financial mismanagement.

• Elizabeth Field testified that “DOD has been working since 2017 to modernize and improve travel within the department and, in 2018, announced a reform initiative to replace DTS with a new system. However, after awarding a contract for up to $374 million to develop the new system, called MyTravel, and requiring some DOD organizations to begin using it, DOD reversed that decision, raising questions about its ability to effectively implement business process reforms.”

Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gilbert Cisneros responsible for the deteriorating program failed to answer questions before the American people.

• Jeffrey Register— Director of Defense Human Resources Activity at the Office of the Under Secretary for Defense for Personnel & Readiness —who appeared in lieu of Under Secretary Cisneros–repeatedly failed to answer questions from both Republican and Democrat members of the Subcommittee.
• Subcommittee Chairwoman Nancy Mace excoriated the witness from the DOD over his inability to answer basic questions on the matter: “You’re coming up here and you can’t even answer two of the first three questions.”

Member Highlights:

Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Chairwoman Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) discussed the mismanagement which led to the failure in replacing DTS.

Rep. Mace: “It seems like this project was moving along well for a few years before it went off the rails. Was there a change in some point in how the Travel System replacement project was managed in DOD that contributed to the failure?”

Ms. Field: “There was a change, specifically the reform effort to create the MyTravel program has been run out of a cross-functional team that was overseen by first the deputy chief management officer and then the chief management officer and the reform management group. When those units were disbanded when the chief management officer position went away, there was a clear disruption in leadership for this effort. The extent to which that is one of the factors behind the demise of MyTravel I don’t know, but it certainly would bear to reason that it did.”

Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) spoke on the rampant improper payments that occur on MyTravel.

Rep. Timmons: “I think one thing we need to think about when we are looking at this, there’s a dollar component. The biggest problems are going to be giving a servicemember money that they are not owed because when you figure that out later, they do not have that money.”

CLICK HERE to watch the hearing.