Audit: Sheriff's employee racked up $790 in parking charges

A Sheriff’s Department employee racked up $790 in parking charges when he left his vehicle at an airport for 79 days while attending training in Virginia.

That is among the findings from audits of Stanislaus County’s purchasing cards, which are like credit cards and used by employees for travel and other job-related expenses.

“Parking a vehicle in airport parking for 79 days is not cost effective and resulted in an additional cost to the County,” according to the Sheriff Department audit’s executive summary. The summary said the unnamed employee had not included parking in his travel authorization form, and nine of the days were for personal time, which was not reimbursed by the employee.

The county Auditor-Controller’s Office audited 17 of the county’s 32 departments and agencies that use purchasing cards. The audits reviewed 2,707 transactions worth $942,278 in the county’s 2015-16 budget year. A staff report says county employees spent $4.54 million on 21,645 transactions that year.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to accept the audit reports at its Tuesday meeting.

The Sheriff’s Department audit recommends the department revise its procedures to prevent this from happening again and seek reimbursement from the employee for the nine personal days. The Sheriff’s Department agreed with the recommendation.

The other findings among the 17 departments and agencies include four instances in which employees used purchasing cards for $1,969 in personal expenses. The county was reimbursed for the purchases.

The executive summary for the Community Services Agency audit faulted the agency for incorrectly purchasing tickets to fly two employees to Phoenix when their event was in Albuquerque, N.M.

“Upon landing in Phoenix, two additional round-trip tickets totaling $1,042.40 were purchased for travel between Phoenix and Albuquerque,” according to the summary. The agency called this incident an administrative error.

The audits found other problems, including four transactions worth $64,698 that did not have paperwork showing employees had sought three quotes or that seeking competitive pricing was not warranted.

“The significant findings primarily consisted of departments and agencies lacking sufficient procedures and controls, in some cases, to monitor the appropriateness of the purchasing card transactions,” according to the Audit-Controller’s report. The report said overall the transactions reviewed by auditors were for valid purchases.

The report said the Department of Workforce Development, Children & Families Commission, the Clerk-Recorder and Public Defender did not have any audit findings.

The Board of Supervisors meets at 9 a.m. in the basement chambers of Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St.

This story was originally published November 6, 2017 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Audit: Sheriff's employee racked up $790 in parking charges."