The SSA’s compliance with purchase card procedures and polices has generally improved following the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention of Act of 2012, according to an IG audit, with most of the problems found relating to documentation-related issues or spending of relatively low value.
For example, the IG found 11 purchase cardholders did not adequately document purchases in purchase logs, as required; five cardholders did not retain records indicating receipt and acceptance of goods; and one cardholder neither documented purchases in a log nor retained records indicating receipt and acceptance of goods.
In addition, auditors found 20 instances where cardholders may have split purchases inappropriately to avoid a higher level of scrutiny and one transaction that occurred over a weekend at a department store. Other issues included failure by some employees to take required refresher training every three years and failure by the agency to close an account when the cardholder separated.
Management agreed with recommendations that it issue instructions to help ensure cardholders comply with policies and procedures; assess split purchases to determine whether they were detected by SSA’s current monitoring process; ensure training is completed and recorded; and determine the appropriateness of possible split purchases and the transaction that occurred over a weekend.
In FY 2014, SSA reported about $60.5 million in purchase card transactions.
