Audit Objective 

Determine whether Lewis County’s (County) purchase card charges were properly approved, supported and for appropriate purposes. 

Key Findings 

We reviewed 366 purchase card charges totaling $229,635 and determined the charges were for appropriate purposes; however, charges were not properly approved and supported and did not follow County policies. For example: 

• Although prior approval is required by the County’s purchase card policy, 238 online purchases totaling $189,852 did not have supporting documentation uploaded into the financial system that showed the department heads’ approval prior to the purchases being made. 
• Although the County’s procurement policy required verbal or written quotes, 52 charges totaling $142,684 did not have evidence of verbal or written quotes. 
• The County could have potentially saved approximately $4,800 in travel expenses and sales tax. 

Additionally, the third-party purchase card vendor directly withdraws the monthly payments from the County’s bank account without the County Treasurer’s (Treasurer) authorization. This puts County funds at unnecessary risk. 

Key Recommendations 

• Approve online purchases prior to the purchases being made. 
• Obtain verbal/written quotes, as required by the County’s procurement policy. 
• Do not allow the purchase card vendor to directly withdraw monthly payments from the County’s bank account. 

County officials agreed with our findings and recommendations and have initiated, or indicated they planned to initiate, corrective action. Appendix B includes our comment to an issue raised in the County’s response.