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City of Rockingham audited over credit card usage

Vanessa SchmittWeekend Kwinana Courier

THE City of Rockingham had 90 credit cards issued to staff and more than $1m credit card purchases were made in a nine month period, according to a Controls Over Corporate Credit Cards report.

Auditor General Colin Murphy did an audit of eight local governments for their credit card use from January 1 to September 30 last year.

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There was a wide range of councils audited. The intent of the report was not to compare councils, but to provide examples of better practice as well as the opportunity for improvement.

Mr Murphy said the councils audited generally had satisfactory controls.

But he did note various shortcomings and made related recommendations for improvements.

In relation to the City of Rockingham, the report found the local council did not always have the appropriate independent approvals on credit card transactions.

“For 54 per cent of cardholders, the coding and review of the transactions was performed by subordinates and the cardholders there after approved their own transactions,” the report said.

The City of Rockingham did not have adequate documentation for 20 per cent of transactions audited.

The City of Rockingham and the Shire of Carnarvon had recently audited their credit cards. The report found this provided management with an important insight into credit card usage and associated effectiveness in controls.

City of Rockingham acting chief executive officer Bob Jeans said council was not concerned about the findings of the audit.

“Importantly, the audit did not find any instances of inappropriate use of credit cards,” he said.

“All credit card transactions receive third party inspection, allocation and sign off.

“The audit recommended another layer of approval where supervisors of cardholders authorise all credit card transactions.

“This has been accepted and implemented.”

Mr Jeans said the City constantly reviews all systems and processes.

“There are no immediate plans to make any further changes to credit card systems,” he said.