Unfinished audit details problems with state's purchase cards

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ An unfinished 2002 audit of Oklahoma's purchase card system uncovered numerous problems, including missing records, violations of state purchasing laws and unauthorized spending.

Saturday, July 2nd 2005, 3:22 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ An unfinished 2002 audit of Oklahoma's purchase card system uncovered numerous problems, including missing records, violations of state purchasing laws and unauthorized spending.

A 2003 executive summary of the audit obtained by The Oklahoman shows problems were identified at 19 of the 20 agencies using the cards at the time the review was started by the Department of Central Services.

At one of those 20 agencies, the Tourism and Recreation Department, an employee was charged recently with spending her card on more than $20,000 in personal expenses, including a cake and flowers for a co-worker's wedding.

Problems found in the 2002 audit included employees getting cash back when paying for items with purchase cards and cardholders spending above the $2,500 transaction limit, a violation of state purchasing laws.

For 17 of the 20 agencies with cards at the time, receipts were not reviewed or verified to see whether the goods or services were received, the audit uncovered. With two of the agencies, no lost receipts forms were filled out when cardholders failed to provide receipts for purchases.

Lisa McKim, who performed the audit, said she was asked by Tom Jaworsky, then-state purchasing director with the Central Services Department, to provide him with the executive summary of the problems. He also canceled plans to provide each of the agencies with a final audit report, she said.

``A decision was made to go out and look at our training program instead,'' McKim said.

Her office had three staff auditors at the time _ enough to finish the audit and write reports for each agency, she said.

But Jaworsky on Friday blamed staff problems for calling off the reports and said he didn't want to complicate a program that was still in its infancy.

``I was trying to be as helpful as possible, as this program got started, as to what was a good practice and a bad practice,'' said Jaworsky, who since has retired.

McKim said card administrators at the agencies were told of problems as they were discovered. But agency directors never were informed of the problems discovered with their cards, she said. The pilot program that started in 2001 with 12 agencies was made permanent in 2004.

McKim said no follow-up reviews have been done to see whether the problems were corrected. She said hundreds of the cards may have gone without review by outside auditors the past two years because of short staffing in her office.

More than 90 state agencies participate in the card program. Thousands of other cards are being used by schools, colleges, cities and counties whose records are not maintained by the state.