R25-7-5. Approvals

  (1) For insurance purposes, all state business travel, whether reimbursed by the state or not, must have prior approval by an appropriate authority. This also includes non-state employees where the state is paying for the travel expenses.

  (2) Both in-state and out-of-state travel must be approved by the Executive Director or designee. The approval of in-state travel reimbursement forms may be considered as documentation of prior approval for in-state travel. Prior approval for out-of-state travel should be documented on form FI5 - "Request for Out-of-State Travel Authorization", in the State's ESS Travel system or another system with equivalent controls and calculations.

  (3) Exceptions to the prior approval for out-of-state travel must be justified in the comments section of the Request for Out-of-State Travel Authorization, form FI 5, in the State's ESS Travel system, another system with equivalent controls and calculations or on an attachment, and must be approved by the Department Director or the designee.

  (4) The Department Director, the Executive Director, or the designee must approve all travel to out-of-state functions where more than two employees from the same department are attending the same function at the same time.