Preparation Of Teleticket Payment Transmittals For Casual Firefighters And Other Personnel

In Bulletin 98-3, Preparation of Teleticket Payment Transmittals for Casual Firefighters, issued July 7, 1998, procedures were implemented to authorize transportation costs for natural disaster travel. These procedures were developed to accommodate the waiver granted by the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. General Services Administration that allowed the processing of U.S. Government Transportation Request (GTR) teleticket transactions for non-USDA and non-Federal casual firefighters and emergency personnel who do not have a social security number on file. In an effort to standardize the processing of teleticket transactions for emergency situations, the procedures established in Bulletin 98-3 have been expanded to include all Federal and non-Federal casual firefighters and other emergency personnel.

Instructions For Issuing Transportation Tickets

The following instructions are for issuing transportation tickets for all casual firefighters and emergency personnel, which includes non-Federal employees, non-USDA Federal employees, and USDA Federal employees who have been hired for fire suppression and other emergency travel purposes:

• Each GTR Accountable Officer responsible for issuing airline tickets for casual firefighters and other personnel performing emergency travel should complete Form AD-202, Travel Authorization/Advance, to authorize the transportation costs. The authorization should be established once during the fiscal year with the name and social security number of the Accountable Officer as the traveler. The following statement should be included on the authorization:

This authorization is issued for the purpose of authorizing transportation costs, exclusively for the issuance of airline tickets via GTRs, for casual firefighters, non-Federal employees, non-USDA Federal employees, and USDA Federal employees by the GTR Accountable Officer, so named herein for fire suppression or other emergency purposes. Travel vouchers shall not be filed utilizing this authorization.

For specific instructions on completing the authorization, see the Title II, Chapter 2, Section 1, of the Travel System procedure.

• When Form AD-567, Teleticket Payment Transmittal, is issued for casual firefighters and other personnel performing emergency travel, the transmittal should include (a) the authorization number of the AD-202 that authorized the transportation costs, (b) the name of each firefighter/emergency traveler, (c) the social security number of the Accountable Officer listed next to the name of each firefighter/emergency traveler, (d) the amount of the ticket, and (e) the other information currently required on the AD-567.

Special Considerations

The following information must be kept in mind when using these instructions:

• These instructions should only be used for casual firefighters and other personnel performing emergency travel.
• These instructions apply to transportation billings on GTRs only, not Government Transportation System (GVTS) transportation billings.
• If there are vouchers to be processed for casual firefighters and other personnel, a separate authorization(s) bearing each traveler's name and social security number must be established.

Note: Accountable Officers are reminded to retain proper documentation so they can respond to questions that result during audits.

This bulletin supersedes Bulletin 98-3. Please discard the superseded bulletin.

Please refer questions about this bulletin to the Travel and Transportation Section at 504-255-4878.