The Mississippi Division of Medicaid (DOM) routinely submits detailed travel information to the Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) for processing and makes every effort to fulfill Gov. Phil Bryant’s commitment to transparency in government spending.
Transparency Mississippi does not accurately reflect the amount of travel documentation DOM submits to DFA. Neither Executive Director David Dzielak nor any other DOM employee has access to enter information directly into Transparency Mississippi.
Rather, information is uploaded from SPAHRS, the State-Wide Payroll and Human Resource System, and DOM staff is unaware of how information entered into SPAHRS flows to the Transparency Mississippi website.
The internal DOM process is as follows. Any DOM employee going on work-related travel must obtain multiple levels of approval, including all supervisory levels and executive leadership. A DFA Travel Authorization form is completed and signed by those leaders, in addition to a DOM Registration Authorization form. Those forms must be approved by the Accounting department and filed with the travel coordinator. Once the trip is complete, the employee fills out a detailed Travel Voucher form with required documentation, which is then submitted for appropriate reimbursement.
The travel coordinator enters information into SPAHRS. Then, the accounting director gives final DOM-agency approval in SPAHRS. At that point, twice a week, all of that information is submitted to DFA for their review and approval of each travel request individually before the employee is reimbursed.
DOM has continually provided detailed travel information and submitted it to the best of our ability in lieu of having written instructions and direction from DFA. Going forward, DOM will work with DFA to improve the process and ensure the information provided is available through Transparency Mississippi.
