An Audit of Salt Lake County District Attorney Travel Expenses

June 24, 2025

Report Highlights

Opportunities to Clarify and Strengthen Approval Practices for the Travel/ Training Request Form and Request for Travel Allowance Forms

We found that 10 out of 13 (77%) Travel/Training Request Forms had either a duplicated approving signature present on the Chief Deputy/Division Director lines, no Division Director or alternative signature present, or the signer on the Chief Deputy/Division Director line was not identified by management as an alternative individual authorized to sign as an approver. Additionally, four out of 11 (36%) appointed employees either had duplicated signatures present or inconsistently included a secondary approving signature from the Division Director, Elected Official/Department Head, or an alternative designee on their Travel/Training Request and Request for Travel Allowance Forms.

Opportunity to Strengthen Compliance with Travel Reimbursement Approval Requirements

Our review of the two travel instances that used the Travel Expenditure Report Forms revealed that neither form contained the required secondary authorizing signature from the Division Director or alternative designee.

Opportunity to Improve Airfare Quote Documentation and Compliance with Countywide Travel Policy 1019

Six out of 13 (46%) sampled merit employee travel instances did not have documentation of a completed Airline Ticket Arrangement Form that should have been submitted to the State Travel Office to obtain flight quotes. Furthermore, two of 13 (15%) travel packets lacked documentation of the "cash in lieu of airfare" calculation for vehicle mileage reimbursement.