AUDIT COMMITTEE SUMMARY
February 18, 2020
Finance Travel and Employee Expense Reimbursements
Report Issued February 11, 2020
Audit Objective
Determine if staff travel and expense reimbursements are in compliance with policies and appropriately supported and approved.
Background
The City of San Antonio’s Administrative Directive 8.31 Travel establishes procedures for the processing of travel and employee expenses incurred in connection with official City business. Additionally, the Directive identifies departmental Travel Approvers and Travel Coordinators as responsible for the processing of expenses, while Central Travel Administrators within Finance’s Disbursements and Receivables Division provide assistance as needed.
Examples of travel-related expenses eligible for reimbursement include local and out-of-town conventions, conferences, workshops, trainings, and meetings. Examples of miscellaneous expenses eligible for reimbursement include work-related mileage, professional dues and certifications, membership renewals, and business lunches.
In an effort to monitor expenses, the Central Travel Administrators generate monthly reports to identify:
• Expense reports that have not been processed for final payment,
• Expense reports missing reported totals,
• Balances owed to the City by employees, and
• Upcoming expenses
The reports are then distributed to the 24 Department Fiscal Administrators (if applicable) so they can address issues at the department level.
The following table illustrates the total expenditures for FY 2016-2019.
Scope & Methodology
The audit scope for this audit included travel and employee expense reimbursements, employees authorized to receive payments, and SAP user access for travel roles from October 2015 through June 2019.
Conclusions
Staff travel and expense reimbursements are supported by appropriate documentation and are properly approved. Additionally, Finance is monitoring expenses on a monthly basis to ensure reimbursements are processed timely and are accurately reported.
However, there are opportunities to improve the travel and expense reimbursement process which include training, centralized recordkeeping, and policies and procedures.
We made recommendations to address these issues. Management agreed with the recommendations and developed positive corrective action plans.