County wants to assess ‘p-card’ use
Purchasing cards — also referred to as p-cards or procurement cards — are used by Anderson County employees and government officials to purchase goods for Anderson County and transfer funds to cover official work-related expenses.
With this year’s budget cycle drawing to a close at the end of this month, county officials have been looking for ways to streamline its p-card program to save the county and taxpayers money.
Changes in the structure of the purchasing and finance departments early last month prompted officials to look into its p-card system, with special attention to the way it is administered.
The two employees in purchasing who were listed as administrators of the county’s p-card program left employment with Anderson County earlier this year, leaving the county without an active p-card administrator, said Anderson County Finance Director Natalie Erb, in a recent public meeting between county officials and SunTrust Bank representatives to discuss the p-card program.
The county has a contract with SunTrust Bank to use its purchasing card program. According to SunTrust and county officials, the county entered its most recent contract on Feb. 24, 2014, and stated that the contract has automatically been renewed each year.
Erb apprised commissioners the former purchasing employees were still listed in the system as active administrators.
County Commission approved a resolution to approve Erb, Deputy Finance Director Robby Holbrook, and Purchasing Agent Katherine Ajmeri as administrators on the county’s p-card program during its April meeting.
On Tuesday, May 16, Erb and her staff held a meeting at the County Courthouse in Clinton with SunTrust representatives to glean more information about the program’s benefits and risks to the county.
At that meeting, Erb stated that once she found out the county did not have an active p-card administrator following the absence of the two employees she contacted SunTrust Bank and had them “freeze” the p-cards.
A freeze to the p-card system means no card transactions can be processed.
During the “freeze,” even if previous purchases “had been approved, the cards were not going to be accepted by a vendor or a merchant. Even if they’d gone through the process leading up to that and had approval for any number or amount of money in that card, the cards were out of commission,” Erb explained.
the county.
At that meeting, Erb stated that once she found out the county did not have an active p-card administrator following the absence of the two employees she contacted SunTrust Bank and had them “freeze” the p-cards.
A freeze to the p-card system means no card transactions can be processed.
During the “freeze,” even if previous purchases “had been approved, the cards were not going to be accepted by a vendor or a merchant. Even if they’d gone through the process leading up to that and had approval for any number or amount of money in that card, the cards were out of commission,” Erb explained.
The county’s focus initially was “to get the system up and running again” after the freeze, which lasted for about two to three weeks, she said.
Sometime at the very end of March — or the very beginning of April this year — the p-cards were frozen, she said, giving an estimate of the time frame in which the cards were out of commission.
From there, the discussion among county officials has shifted to looking at the way the p-card system has been administered and specifically, at employees’ p-card transactions in the last few months.
SunTrust provided a list of employee transactions with p-cards for the last year, and Erb distributed the list of transactions to commissioners to review before their meeting April 19.
After reviewing the p-card purchases made in the last few months, commissioners noticed what appeared to be instances where employees might have been using the cards to make personal, non-work-related purchases at local convenience stores and major retail chains.
“There’re purchases made and I wonder who’s supervising. I think we need to question what types of purchases are we making and why,” stated Dist. 1 Commissioner Tracy Wandell, at the meeting with SunTrust officials. “I think there’re questions with some purchases. I don’t understand how we can not question some of these purchases.”
In light of this recent review of the system, county officials are considering whether the county’s p-card system needs a complete overhaul, and seem to be in agreement on one thing: The purchases need to be monitored more carefully.
So far, no instances of fraud or abuse have been detected, reported Erb.
At this same meeting, Erb disclosed to county officials, employees, and the public, the work the county’s purchasing and finance department is undertaking to fine-tune administering the p-card system, and stated that they were in the process of revising the county’s polices and procedures.
It was not clear before the meeting on May 16 with SunTrust whether or not the county had renewed its contract with SunTrust for the p-cards, but officials learned from SunTrust representatives present at the meeting the county’s p-card contract with SunTrust “is automatically renewed for one year at a time.”
“Personally I don’t think we’re in contract [with SunTrust]. I’m not a lawyer, but we don’t have a contract. You guys are talking about stuff and we don’t even have a contract. Evergreen? That scares the s**t out of me. Evergreen? Really? Is that how it works in business? I’ve never seen an evergreen contract,” said Wandell.
An “evergreen” contract automatically renews an agreement unless termination notice is provided and is often used for long-term agreements.
“When it comes to money, especially taxpayers’ money it bothers me,” said Wandell. “I don’t know what deals were cut. You know, there’s always deals cut in this county. There’s deals cut. ‘Hey, will you do this? You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.’ When we have a meeting and it’s in the minutes to talk about an item, p-cards, and it’s not talked about that, bothers me.”
