Wednesday, October 10, 2001
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Wednesday, October 10, 2001 |
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County eyes purchase cards for workers
By DAVE
HAMRICK
Fayette government workers running around with purchasing cards able to tap directly into county bank accounts? Far from giving workers a blank check, "It will save you time, money, effort and a whole list of things," said Ingrid Kelly, senior sales officer for Wachovia, the county's bank. Kelly presented the idea to the County Commission during its work session last week, and commissioners agreed to think it over. Purchase cards like the ones she is proposing, Kelly said, have numerous high-tech controls on them so they can't be abused. A county official can be authorized to spend a given amount of money per month, and a different amount per transaction, and the card can be set up to pay for expenditures only in authorized categories. So a worker authorized to purchase only office supplies wouldn't be able to use the card for travel, she said. The cards also could be electronically linked to the county budget, so a department would be forced to stay within prescribed limits, said Kelly, adding that workers would have to keep receipts and those receipts would have to be randomly audited to prevent abuse. Because it eliminates the physical costs of receiving invoices and mailing checks, along with the costs of employees who have to be involved in such transactions, the purchase card can cut the cost of a purchase from an average of $50 - $150 to an average of $15 - $25, she said. Commissioners weren't quite ready to buy the actual estimates, which are industry averages, but agreed the cards could reduce costs and free up the time of some workers. "There's millions and millions of dollars saved by the federal government because of programs like this," said commission Chairman Greg Dunn. But Commissioner A.G. VanLandingham wants Fayette's own Finance Department to study its procedures and come up with estimates of actual savings that could be expected, rather than using Wachovia's industry averages. "I would ask that we table it until a later time and get some figures that we can deal with," he said. Finance director Mark Pullium said he would come up with those figures, but promised, "It would save us hundreds of paper transactions a month."
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