Background
The U.S. Postal Service uses credit cards, called Voyager cards, to pay for the commercially purchased fuel, oil, and routine maintenance for each of its roughly 236,500 vehicles. Site managers at the delivery units maintain the Voyager cards for drivers at the unit to use. These site managers are responsible for obtaining driver personal identification numbers (PIN), reconciling high-risk transactions, disputing transactions, maintaining transaction supporting documentation, performing semi-annual driver certifications, and securing the Voyager cards. Each driver is assigned a unique PIN for their Voyager card purchases. Drivers are responsible for securing their PINs and providing a receipt to their site managers. During fiscal years 2021 and 2022, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted 14 Voyager card-related audits. During this audit, we found issues that required immediate attention. This resulted in the OIG issuing a management alert related to premium fuel purchases and PINs.
What We Did
Our objective was to determine the effectiveness of the Postal Service’s fleet card program and identify opportunities for improvement. For this audit, we summarized previous audit findings and recommendations, interviewed Postal Service management, and engaged with a contractor to assess industry best practices for fleet card management.
What We Found
We found Voyager card policies to be generally adequate and in line with best practices. However, management did not always follow policy for PIN management, supporting documentation, transaction reconciliation, and Voyager card security. This occurred because site managers did not always take required training, did not have refresher training, were not aware of proper security procedures, and did not have a standard check-in and check-out procedure for Voyager cards at the time of our audits. Although the Postal Service offers Voyager card training for site managers, all 14 of our audits identified training issues or that management was unaware of their responsibilities, and Voyager cards were not listed on the afternoon checklist to remind site managers to check them in at the end of the day.
Recommendations
We recommended management establish a procedure for site managers to take required training before they have access to Fleet Commander Online and Fuel Asset Management System; create periodic training and require remediation training for site management failures; and update the appropriate checklists to include Voyager cards.