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US Federal Service Department Formulating Official Travel System

2014/2/22 15:14:00 27

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Federal Service Department Public Service Travel System

the current federal a href= "http://www.91se91.com/news/index_c.asp" > travel regulations < /a > was revised in January 2004, and the specific expenditure standards were adjusted and amended in each budget year.

Specifically, the United States Federal staff official travel system includes 3 major categories: first, the official travel standards to 48 states in the United States, which are formulated by the federal service agency; two, the official travel standards to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam and the US territories, which are formulated by the US Department of defense; three, the official travel standards to foreign countries, which are formulated by the State Department of the United States.

The following is the introduction of the official travel system formulated by the Federal Service Department, which is as follows:

basic condition .

the Federal Service Department of the United States is responsible for formulating the daily allowances for federal staff members who go to 48 states in the United States for their official activities. The standard of daily allowances in the same area includes three parts: Accommodation standard, allowance for meals and sporadic expenses.

According to the United States federal government's 2014 budget annual allowance standard (implemented in October 1, 2013), the majority of the 48 states in the United States (about 2600 counties) carry out a uniform daily allowance standard of $129, among them: 83 dollars (excluding tax), meals allowance and fractional expenditure 46 us dollars.

the determination of accommodation Standard

the Federal Service Department has been working closely with federal agencies, < a href= "http://www.91se91.com/news/index_c.asp" > official travel "/a" personnel and tourism industry to continuously improve the process of determining the standard of accommodation allowance.

Since the 2005 budget year, the standard of accommodation day allowance has been determined based on the average operating income of the hotel room provided by the contractor.

The 3 main factors that affect the average daily price level of hotels, including the criteria of hotel selection, the time span of data and seasonal changes, result in the standard of federal housing allowance, which is different from the market price of the same period.

1. criteria for hotel selection.

The United States Federal Service Department's Hotel contractor is Smith travel research company. The average daily price of the hotel provided by the contractor provides an important basis for the Federal Service Department to determine the allowances for a certain area.

Hotel selection criteria include geographical location (such as postal code, public service destination), fire safety certificate and hotel property.

Smith travel research group divides hotels into 5 types: super luxury, luxury, senior, intermediate and economic. The purpose of the division is to choose the best hotels that represent the middle price level in every market.

2. time span of data.

Take the standard of housing allowance in the 2014 budget year as an example, the average daily price level of accommodation used by the Federal Service Department is from April 2012 to March 2013.

3. seasonal factors.

In order to more accurately reflect seasonal fluctuations in prices, the Federal Service Department has established seasonal prices in many regions. Seasonal price cycles usually last for 2 or 2 months. The average daily price level in this period is at least 15% different from that in the early or late stages.

If the average daily price level varies from 10% to 14% in a certain period of time, but at the same time the hotel occupancy rate reaches 70% or higher in that time period, the time period is also defined as 1 seasonal periods.

Once the 1 seasonal period is determined, the daily average price level of all seasons in the region will be calculated based on the accommodation data at the end of March of that year.

The federal service department uses the same hotel sample group to determine the price and the seasonal cycle, but uses 3 years of valuable data in determining the seasonal cycle.

it needs to be explained that the standard of domestic travel allowance does not include tax.

Taxes based on the cost of lodging cost are reimbursed as miscellaneous expenses.

However, for foreign official travel, the US State Department stipulates that foreign travel accommodation standards include tax and no further tax reimbursement is allowed.

Some state and local governments in the United States usually get rid of the federal government's revenue from official travel.

> a href= "http://www.91se91.com/news/index_c.asp" > allowance allowance < /a > and sporadic expenditure standard /p >

Federal Service Department estimates the allowance for meals and sporadic expenses every 3 to 5 years.

In 2009, the Department conducted a nationwide assessment of catering standards to more accurately reflect the price of meals in official business hotels and implemented in the 2010 budget year.

According to the data provided by more than 9000 restaurants, the level of food and sporadic expenses is between $46 and $71.

For the first and last day of official travel, allowance for meals and sporadic expenses are calculated on the basis of 75% of the daily allowance.

unlike the standard of housing allowance, allowances for meals and sporadic expenses include tax and gratuity.

According to the interpretation of the federal official travel Ordinance, sporadic expenses include expenses paid to baggage handlers, hotel attendants and ship attendants.

in order to facilitate federal officials to calculate the allowance for meals that should be deducted from meals provided (such as banquets, entertaining, etc.), the Federal Services Department subdivides food allowance and sporadic expenditure.

(see Annex)

what needs to be explained is that there is no "mix and match" clause in the federal travel regulations for the control of the total amount of accommodation and meals, the total standard of the allowance for allowances, and the "mix and match" for better accommodation or meals.

The standard of accommodation allowance is the maximum limit, and the actual accommodation cost of official travel personnel can only be the limit.

Therefore, there is no additional housing allowance to subsidize meals and sporadic expenses.

Similarly, the allowance for meals and sporadic expenses can not be pferred to accommodation expenditure.

non-standard area .

in the 48 states of the United States, there are about 400 non-standard areas in the 2014 budget year, using different standards of expenditure above the unified daily allowance.

The difference between the standard area and the non-standard area is that the former is the site frequently visited by the federal government agencies on official travel, and the Federal Service Department conducts corresponding assessments every year. The latter is the area where the federal agencies travel less frequently, which is usually not shown separately on the website of the Federal service department.

Specifically, the standard of subsidy for non-standard areas is determined by the federal service department based on factors such as price changes.

Take the 2014 budget year as an example, 2 regions in the country were allocated to non standard areas from the standard area of the previous budget year, while 29 areas were converted from standard areas to non standard areas in the previous budget year.

P > the United States federal service department carries out "special assessment" for non standard areas. It must be formally written by 1 federal agencies' official travel managers or fairly senior individuals to the service department for the purpose of presenting unsuitable explanatory materials for the daily allowance standard. It includes the following contents: the location of the area to be studied, including the zip code; the name of the hostel (including address, postcode and price level), and the name of the hostel (including address, postal code and price level) which are not acceptable to the existing daily allowance standards; the time spent by the federal official travellers in order to find hotels that meet the current daily allowance standards, and the additional additional pportation costs (such as car rental or taxis). <

All of the above information must be submitted before December 31st as a basis for the assessment of the annual allowance for the budget. It will be used as reference for the next budget year after December 31st and before April 1st.

After receiving the above materials, the Federal Service Department will obtain updated data from contractors to decide whether to adjust the existing allowance standards.

other provisions

(1) if the federal official travel destination is a city (City, in the US local government system, the municipal government is lower than the county government level), but there is no standard of daily allowances for the city, then the Japanese Tianjin paste standard of the county (County) is to be found and applied.

If there is no standard of daily allowances for the county, a unified standard allowance will be implemented.

(two) hotels are not obliged to accept the standard of daily allowance stipulated by the federal government, and whether or not to accept this standard is determined by the hotel itself.

Sometimes the hotel itself will formulate a "government price" which is different from the federal day allowance standard.

If the "government price" set by the hotel is higher than the federal day allowance standard, official travel personnel must obtain prior approval to use the "government price" of the hotel.

The federal government officials are obliged to distinguish between the federal government's daily allowance standard and the "government price" stipulated in the hotel regulations.

(three) for any travel destination, the official travel personnel must provide a receipt for the accommodation fee. They also need to provide any 1 authorized receipts of more than 75 US dollars. Otherwise, they must provide the unit with the reason why they can not provide reasonable receipts.

(four) if an objective hotel is unable to find a hotel that meets the daily allowance standard on a business trip, the official travel officer may apply to the unit for authorization to use the "actual expenditure allowance" clause.

The 11 paragraph of the 301st article of the federal travel regulations stipulates that the unit of official travel personnel can authorize no more than 3 times the actual expenditure allowance of the local Japanese allowance standard.

At the same time, official travel personnel must log in to the Federal Housing website to verify that there is indeed no housing in line with the daily allowance standard.

(five) for the official travel (no room cost) to leave the office for more than 12 hours on the same day, the federal travel regulations stipulate that 75% of the allowance for meals and sporadic expenses can be enjoyed by the business traveler.