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6 Investigates: Audit Reveals Misuse of Credit Cards
Posted: Jan 10, 2013 5:23 PM by Andrew Ellison - aellison@kristv.com
Updated: Jan 10, 2013 6:46 PM
CORPUS CHRISTI - We have more on the City Auditor report that scrutinized how city employees have been spending your tax dollars. The report reveals that some city employees were using city credit cards to buy things they weren't supposed to.
The city has implemented new policies to prevent problems like this from happening, like monthly check-ups on purchases.
After checking a number of purchases made with the cards, the Audit Department found a number of cases where city rules were broken. They found transactions that weren't properly approved and others that the department listed as "questionable".
Among the transactions that broke city policy were five purchases for IPADS, other purchases that appeared to be for personal use, and two payments to the online site PayPal.
Problem is that any technological purchases have to be approved by the Municipal Information Systems Department, and these were not.
And the city doesn't allow payments to sites like PayPal.
City Finance Director Constance Sanchez says many employees didn't understand all the rules.
"The findings that were mentioned in the report were more housekeeping type in nature, and no disciplinary action was taken against any employees because of the report," she says.
She says the goal is to educate before disciplinary action is taken.
"What we try to do is coach and help our employees learn the policies, and if they continually, over time, keep making the same mistakes, then definitely, something would need to be done," Sanchez says.
According to city policy, those penalties could include taking away the employee's card, and in extreme cases, termination.
As we've reported, we've asked the city for more details like who made payments to PayPal and which department bought the IPADS, but they tell us that information is confidential.
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