Split disbursement now mandatory for all military travelers Published May 23, 2003 By Staff Sgt. A.J. Bosker Air Force Print News WASHINGTON -- All military travelers must now select the split disbursement option on their travel voucher claims to directly pay their government travel card expenses, according to finance officials.Split disbursement requires travelers to tally up their GTC expenses and authorize enough funds to be sent automatically to Bank of America to pay off their charges, said Michael G. Weber, Air Force travel card program manager at the Pentagon. Any remaining travel settlement will still be sent to the traveler’s personal account.“Although this change was mandated by the 2003 National Defense Authorization Act to reduce the number of delinquent travel card accounts, split disbursement really is a win-win for everyone,” Weber said. “It simplifies the payment process for travelers, gets the bank their money more quickly and reduces the number of delinquent accounts.”Nearly half of all Air Force travelers already use split disbursement on a regular basis when filing their vouchers because it simplifies the process for them, Weber said.“Airmen no longer have to wait for their travel money to be credited to their personal accounts before they can mail a check to the bank,” he said. “It saves them the cost of a stamp or a trip to a bank branch and gets the money to the bank within two or three days.”By having all travelers pay off their travel card bills automatically, the Air Force should see a decrease in the number of delinquent accounts, he said. This is especially true if a traveler returns from a TDY as a billing cycle is about to turn over, because they can pay off the card before their account becomes 30 days past due.If a traveler charges more to their GTC than they were authorized, they still must select split disbursement and also reimburse the bank any additional charges, he added.“Selecting split disbursement on a travel voucher, whether done manually or on an automated travel system, is easy and requires only a few clicks of the mouse or one block to be checked on a form,” Weber said.Supervisors and approving officials are required to verify travelers selected split disbursement before signing off on any voucher, he said.“If split disbursement is not selected on a voucher, it will be returned to the traveler to be redone,” he said. “This may delay the processing of the claim and potentially put the traveler’s GTC account into a past-due status.”Although split disbursement is not yet mandatory for civilian employees, Weber encouraged them to take advantage of its timesaving benefit.For more information, Air Force travelers can contact their finance office or unit travel card program manager.