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Credit card policy defended

Saskia AdystiAlbany Advertiser

Shire of Denmark executive officer Bill Parker says the Shire has improved its credit card procedures in the wake of an auditor report.

The local government audit report conducted by the Office of the Auditor General found “shortcomings of varying significance” were discovered.

However, it declared no inappropriate use of credit cards had been identified. The audit found there were inadequate documents for a small number of transactions that Shire employees had made, which meant it was difficult to determine the legitimacy of purchases. The Shire also failed to terminate corporate cards held by former staff.

The maximum time allocated for the Shire to cancel these corporate cards is up to 11 months. The audit also found the Shire did not specify time lines for acquitting and approving monthly credit card statements, which hindered reviews of transactions made with Shire money.

“Setting time lines is important as they help ensure timely acquittal and approvals, and also early identification of any unauthorised transactions,” the report said.

“We found four local governments were not always acquitting their credit card transactions in a timely manner or in line with their own policy. “The delays ranged from seven business days later than required by the policy, to over four months.”

The Shire spent more than $22,000 on four corporate credit cards between January 1 and September 30 last year. Mr Parker said he believed the audit findings were overall very positive.

“The audit did identify opportunities for improvement. In response, the Shire is making those recommended changes to policies and systems,” he said.

President of Denmark Rate Payers Association, Beverly Ford said she would like to see more detailed profit and loss information provided to ratepayers. “That is something that our Association has already raised with the Shire and will continue to liaise with them on,” she said.

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