Below you will find an article regarding ProCard usage which you might find interesting...  
 
STATE AUDITOR URGES P-CARD OVERHAUL 

If you think there's no such thing as a free lunch, you probably don't work for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. In one year alone, PENNDOT spent at least $87,500 on catered lunches, breakfasts and snacks for PENNDOT employees and others, according to the preliminary results of a special audit released today by Auditor General Robert P. Casey, Jr. At the same time, PENNDOT officials spent at least $62,500 on embroidered shirts, jackets, patches and tote bags, and at least $78,000 on fancy business accessories, novelties and gifts-including engraved business card holders and squeezable stress relievers in the shape of convertible cars.

Casey's audit-which began in September 2002 and is ongoing -is examining PENNDOT's use of over 1,000 Commonwealth purchasing cards between June 16, 2001 and June 15, 2002. Casey took the unusual step of releasing his preliminary audit findings now so that Governor Ed Rendell and PENNDOT

Secretary Allen Biehler could begin taking corrective action immediately, rather than waiting until the audit is completed. Casey today also released a summary report of four additional purchasing card audits he conducted covering

1998-2002.

"To date, our PENNDOT audit has found that nearly 70 percent of the credit card purchases we sampled were abusive, improper or excessive and served no public purpose," Casey said. "Their only purpose was to promote PENNDOT and

to feed, clothe and entertain its employees. There is absolutely no justification for spending taxpayers' money on the personal expenses of state employees."

A review of invoices from just 41 vendors has uncovered at least $252,000 in questionable purchases for food, clothing and frivolous novelties. In addition to designer golf balls, beach bags and buttermints, PENNDOT officials spent over $500 in public funds on a giant pair of ceremonial scissors.

Casey said that these purchases appear abusive, based on the nature and excessive cost of the items and the volume and frequency of the purchases. Other expenditures for gifts and novelty items also appear improper because the purchases apparently were split in order to evade the Commonwealth's

$3,000 limit on Purchasing Card transactions.

"Unfortunately, PENNDOT's spending abuses are not isolated incidents," Casey said, "but rather, part of a disturbing pattern in the executive agencies that participate in the Commonwealth's Purchasing Card Program."

Casey has previously audited the program as operated within the Departments of Agriculture, Conservation & Natural Resources, Corrections, and Labor & Industry (Bureau of Labor Law Compliance). The 21 findings contained in those audits exposed over $1.2 million in abusive, improper and inappropriate spending for things like personal cell phone calls, fine china and crystal, casino trips and digital cameras.

Since the program began in 1997, cumulative expenditures have exceeded $500 million, growing from $2.05 million during the 1996-97 state fiscal year to $145.42 million during the 2001-02 state fiscal year.

"Fundamental reforms to the operation of the Purchasing Card Program could generate a significant amount of cost savings for the Commonwealth at a time when such savings are both sorely needed and difficult to identify," Casey said.

In the one-year period that Casey is auditing, PENNDOT had at least 588 cardholders who used at least 1,097 purchasing cards for over 162,000 transactions totaling approximately $43 million. (By way of comparison, the Department of the Auditor General has just one purchasing card assigned to the office director responsible for the department's purchasing.)

Kathy Gilley, C.P.M.
ProCard Administrator
University of Oklahoma
405-325-5081
405/329-8394 fax