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AIMD-95-74R 1 (1995-02-14)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptabxe0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO United States General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 20548 Accounting and Information Management Division B-259558 February 14, 1995 Mr. George V. Cava Comptroller 11th Support Wing Financial Management and Comptroller Department of Air Force Dear Mr. Cava: This letter responds to your January 26, 1995, request that we sanction the operation of your automated travel system (FASTravel) at Langley Air Force Base and the Pentagon for a 1-year test. You requested our views on whether (1) electronic travel records can replace paper travel orders and travel vouchers, (2) a Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) disbursing officer can rely on electronic records generated outside of his/her control to record obligations and generate disbursements, and (3) GAO requires that travel receipts be retained by a disbursing officer or an Air Force Finance Office. We reviewed the material attached to your letter and other information provided by your staff and believe that a limited test is warranted. We did not test your current or proposed system, and, consequently, our response only addresses your proposal conceptually. The following discusses our views on these issues in more detail. Electronic Records and Signatures Can Replace Paper Documents GAO has long recognized that agency records need not be maintained in their original paper form. For example, we have found microfilm and similar technologies to be acceptable for storing the data on paper documents. A 1991 Comptroller General decision, 71 Comp. Gen. 109 (1991), addressed whether government contracts generated and stored electronically rather than on paper satisfied a statutory requirement that the contract be in writing. In this decision, we stated that electronic technology that allows the data to be examined in human readable form, as on a monitor, stored on electronic media, recalled from storage and reviewed in human readable form, can provide data integrity that is equal to that of a paper document. We also noted that although electronic documents are stored in a different manner than paper documents, they ultimately take the form of visual symbols. GAO/AIMD-95-74R Air Force Automated Travel System Page 1