A GAO report ( www.gao.gov/new.items/d02676t.pdf
) on the use of purchase cards at the Education, Navy,
Agriculture, Interior and Transportation departments reveals internal
control weaknesses permitted thousands of unauthorized or questionable
transactions between 1998 and 2001, involving potentially millions of
dollars in waste and abuse. The watchdog agency discovered failures to
follow purchasing guidelines, inadequate card-usage training and
oversight and, at some agencies, outright fraud. To prevent further
losses, the GAO recommends improved management scrutiny of
purchase-card transactions (in fiscal year 2001, 400,000 employees
from about 60 federal agencies spent nearly $14 billion) and increased
training for participating employees.
Fraud
