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How do you “accidentally” use a county p-card?
Posted By katie allison granju
Like everyone else in town, I’m still trying to digest Mayor Ragsdale’s response to the p-card audit, released today.
One thing that struck me was this passage:
Personal charges should never be placed on a procurement card. Management does recognize that “inadvertent or accidental charges” may occur…
The document goes on to explain that when a county employee “accidentally” charges a personal expense (like a cruise or maybe a medical procedure) on their county charge card, they need to reimburse the county. If they do it repeatedly, they might get sacked.
But here’s the thing: how do you ACCIDENTALLY use your employer’s charge card to pay for, well, anything? How does that happen? In most companies, there would be a zero tolerance policy because, c’mon, nobody accidentally charges anything. And if the county allows employees to do it and then reimburse them, then isn’t the county just acting as a de facto loan shark for the employee?
Please, someone explain this to me.
Mar 19th, 2008
OK, I will explain it to you. My company issued me a P-card for departmental procurement. It is a VISA with a blue background. I have another personal card that is also a VISA with a blue background. It has happened in the past that I have grabbed inadventently the wrong card and made a purchase. In that case, I simply contact the P-card vendor (in my case, Citibank), and repay the amount that I accidentally charged.
I don’t like P-card abuse any more than the next person, but since I use one, I know that, as the mayor said, accidents do happen. It’s when it happens dozens of times per day that I become concerned.