Maintaining Compliance of the Federal Transit Benefit Program

In April 2007, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report citing numerous instances of fraud, waste and abuse of the Federal Workforce Transportation program by Federal employees. To prevent further abuse, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memorandum on May 14, 2007, listing 10 minimum internal controls and requiring all Federal agencies to confirm, no later than June 30, 2007, that they implemented these controls.

Subsequent internal audits have found that agencies that administer their own transit benefit programs do not effectively implement all the OMB internal controls for the following reasons:

1. The controls were considered not to be required or not cost effective;
2. Managers or supervisor’s responsibilities were not defined on applications;
3. A manual data verification process was used.

As cited in the OMB memorandum, we must preserve the benefits of this program while eliminating the opportunity for fraud, waste and abuse. TRANServe has distributed the transit benefit to federal employees since the early 1990s and we have incorporated an enterprise risk management approach that meets all 10 OMB internal control requirements. We offer our service and expertise to all federal agencies that participate in the transit benefit program.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office determined that TRANServe’s Debit Card program was compliant with all Federal standards and our various internal control activities align with GAO’s Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government. Validating the on-going work performed by TRANServe to protect over 100 Federal customer agencies against fraud, waste, and abuse.

TRANServe enables federal agencies to make use of an established system with effective internal controls over the receipt, maintenance and distribution of the transit benefit to over 100,000 federal employees. TRANServe provides unique advantages due to its size, breadth of experience and relationships with transit authorities nationwide and we are at the forefront of creating solutions to enable our customers to meet the Federal Government’s emphasis on budget reductions and cost restrictions.

TRANServe provides agency customers with a certified and accredited web based application system and transit database. An extensive Certification and Accreditation (C&A) process of our systems ensures data integrity and compliance with the Office of Information Technology’s policies including the handling of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) information. Our electronic application offers a secure and streamlined method for participants to apply for the program. We have eliminated the burden and security risk of paper applications and leverage our reporting capability to enforce sound transit benefit funds management, to measure customer service effectiveness, and to monitor for program fraud, waste, and abuse. 

For more information on the OMB internal control requirements or to learn how your agency can partner with TRANServe visit /transerve or email TRANServe@dot.gov.