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State Audit of Lewis County’s Purchase Card Charges Results
in Changes to Process
Published: August 08, 2024
at 12:00 p.m.
By: New York State Comptroller’s Office
Audit Summary
from New York State Comptroller’s Office
Lewis County –
Purchase Cards (2024M-41)
Issued Date: July
26, 2024
[read complete
report – pdf]
 Audit Objective
Determine whether
Lewis County’s (County) purchase card charges were properly approved,
supported and for appropriate purposes.
Key
Findings
We reviewed 366
purchase card charges totaling $229,635 and determined the charges were for
appropriate purposes; however, charges were not properly approved and
supported and did not follow County policies. For example:
- Although prior approval is required by the
County’s purchase card policy, 238 online purchases totaling $189,852
did not have supporting documentation uploaded into the financial
system that showed the department heads’ approval prior to the
purchases being made.
- Although the County’s procurement policy
required verbal or written quotes, 52 charges totaling $142,684 did
not have evidence of verbal or written quotes.
- The County could have potentially saved
approximately $4,800 in travel expenses and sales tax.
Additionally, the
third-party purchase card vendor directly withdraws the monthly payments
from the County’s bank account without the County Treasurer’s (Treasurer)
authorization. This puts County funds at unnecessary risk.
Key
Recommendations
- Approve online purchases prior to the
purchases being made.
- Obtain verbal/written quotes, as required by
the County’s procurement policy.
- Do not allow the purchase card vendor to
directly withdraw monthly payments from the County’s bank
account.
County officials
agreed with our findings and recommendations and have initiated, or
indicated they planned to initiate, corrective action. Appendix B includes
our comment to an issue raised in the County’s
response.
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