A REPORT on corporate credit card use at several WA councils found no inappropriate use but lengthy delays in cancelling cards after employees left the City of Wanneroo.
The then Auditor General Colin Murphy’s May report looked at credit card policies and practices at eight councils between January 1, 2017 and September 30, 2017.
“We found delays in cancelling cards when staff resigned at the Shire of Denmark and the City of Wanneroo,” it said.
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READ NOW“The maximum delays were four months and 11 months respectively.
“If cards are not cancelled promptly, they may be used by other non-authorised staff.
“The City of Wanneroo agreed that in future credit cards will be cancelled when staff leave.
“Although the cards had not been promptly cancelled with the bank, they had been promptly destroyed when the staff members resigned – no transactions had been made.”
Wanneroo’s corporate strategy and performance director Noelene Jennings said the City audited its internal controls on a regular basis and continually improved them.
“The City’s corporate credit card management procedure has been updated to capture the Auditor General’s recommendations,” she said.
“All credit card purchases are disclosed in the City’s monthly warrant of payments report which gets adopted by the council, is a public document.”
Mrs Jennings said the City had seven corporate credit cards, used by five executives and two managers, as well as 41 purchase cards.
The report said overall policies and systems for managing corporate credit cards were appropriate but identified weaknesses at seven of the councils.
“At the Shire of Denmark and the City of Wanneroo, we found that policies did not specify the timelines for acquitting and approving monthly credit card statements,” the report said.
“Setting timelines is important as they help ensure timely acquittal and approvals, and also early identification of any unauthorised transactions.
“At the City of Wanneroo, we found two instances where cardholders had not completed cardholder agreements.”
The report said Wanneroo staff shared cards but were able to demonstrate independent approval and purchase monitoring.
“Local governments in our sample generally had satisfactory controls in place to manage the use of credit cards,” it said.
“We did not find any inappropriate use of credit cards.”
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