DoD travel system glitches won’t be fixed till 2011
By GREGG CARLSTROM
Federal Times
April 20, 2008
The Defense Travel System is still plagued with problems, and Pentagon officials admit it will take at least three years before it is fully functional.
Among the troubles, according to Defense Department officials and congressional auditors:
— The system often lacks enough commercial data needed by travelers to make hotel and rental car arrangements, which prompts many to use a travel agent.
— Real-time assistance is not always available or responsive for people using the system or encountering complications during their trips.
— The system follows strict travel rules that require additional bureaucracy when flexibility is needed.
Pentagon officials admitted last week that Defense Department travelers who use the system are not big fans.
“We’re still midway toward our goal of satisfied users, and that’s the furthest part of our journey [ahead],” Michael Dominguez, principal deputy undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, told the House Armed Services subcommittee on oversight and investigations.
He declined to offer details about how users rate the system or the exact methods used to measure user satisfaction.
Dominguez said the department will use customer satisfaction surveys to measure progress, but he declined to say when he expects the system to be considered “user-friendly.”
That goal will likely take years to achieve. The Pentagon plans to have all of the travel system’s functions online by the end of fiscal 2010. A year after that, the department hopes to shut down dozens of legacy travel systems that the Defense Travel System (DTS) was intended to replace.
DTS is in use at only 85 percent of the Defense Department’s 11,000 sites, Pentagon officials said. They had earlier planned to have the system in use at all the sites by last year.
Click here for the full story.
Senator Tom Coburn
Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security
340 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-2254 Fax: 202-228-3796
|
|
