Purpose 

The objective of our examination was to determine if the PCard transactions within our scope period were appropriate and in compliance with the laws, rules, regulations, and guidelines governing the purchasing card program and State purchasing requirements.

Background 

In 2023, the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) processed nearly 108,000 payments totaling more than $899 million. OPWDD’s Procurement Card (PCard) spending in 2023 included nearly 236,000 transactions totaling more than $80.2 million. We examined the reconciliation timeframes for the 58,754 PCard transactions totaling over $19 million that OPWDD incurred during the period April 1, 2023 through June 30, 2023 and selected a sample from these transactions to substantively test compliance with requirements governing the purchasing card program and State purchasing requirements.

Key Findings 

We found that OPWDD did not reconcile 23,657 transactions totaling over $7.4 million within the required timeframe. Of the 23,657 transactions that were not reconciled timely, 22,153 (93.6% by count) totaling $7 million were eventually reconciled. However, it took OPWDD an average of 105 days from the statement date, as opposed to the required 60 days from the statement date, to complete the reconciliation.

We also found that during the scope of our examination, OPWDD did not seek recovery when required from the responsible employees for 227 PCard payments totaling $8,483 for vehicle violations incurred by these employees when driving a State-owned vehicle.

Key Recommendations 

We recommend the Office: (i) review and revise existing reconciliation procedures, (ii) implement enhanced internal controls to ensure business office staff can perform timely and accurate reconciliations and (iii) establish clear guidelines to ensure all required documentation is consistently provided to business office staff.

We also recommend the Office identify and recover funds from OPWDD employees for vehicle violation expenses paid on their behalf including the $8,483 cited in this report and continue to enforce OPWDD’s “Vehicle Ticket & Violation Procedures” to recover funds paid on behalf of employees.