Commonwealth credit card abused by public servant

$7k in four years, 208 weeks = $33.65 per week. If of course it’s 63 charges from $7k, it is $111.11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
Could that have been any more planned? Still, how hard is it to discern a Government credit card from your own?
Rorted, busted – suck it up.

DJ Mac said :

Actually I was in the public service when this all started under Howard – the idea was that you sack the APS 3-4s who did the credit card reconciliation and booked everyone’s travel and OH HOW WONDERFUL you have saved ALL this money and reduced the number of “unnecessary bureaucrats” – not looking at how open the system is to abuse, how many discounts you loose because you no longer book travel in bulk, you loose the corporate knowledge of which hotels are the best deal (not necessarily the cheapest…), which hotels/motels/airlines adequately cope with special requests (like special dietary requirement) you loose the ability to negotiate with organisations like hotel chains because there isn’t a centralised place doing the bookings – not even taking into account the amount of time that is wasted while EL1’s, EL2’s etc look up codes to do the recs, research the accommodation in an area (basically reinventing the wheel) etc…..

It has been going on a LONG time and this doesn’t surprise me at all.

DoFD has tightened the purse strings in the last year or 2…. You can now only book travel through certain providers. This was to save money in the long run…. Hmmm jury is still out for me.

Cripes, Customs and Border Protection blots its copybook again. Nice to know our security is in the hands of people who lack the simplest internal controls.

Having worked for both State and other Commonwealth departments, we couldn’t have got away with an unauthorised milkshake on an overnight trip to Wagga. They seem to have a unique culture there.

switch said :

and you loose the ability to spell lose correctly…

They are saying they need to “tighten” up the financial book keeping.

Geniuses I work for issue everyone with a credit card, then expressly forbid using them. Mine sits in my drawer. When it expired and a replacement came, I never activated it; just tossed it in the same drawer.
Keeps reconciliations simple, I guess :-\

switch said :

and you loose the ability to spell lose correctly…

Sorry about that but I am stuck at home with bacterial pneumonia and two kids with Chicken Pox…. spelling isn’t at the forefront of my mind at the moment.

and you loose the ability to spell lose correctly…

Actually I was in the public service when this all started under Howard – the idea was that you sack the APS 3-4s who did the credit card reconciliation and booked everyone’s travel and OH HOW WONDERFUL you have saved ALL this money and reduced the number of “unnecessary bureaucrats” – not looking at how open the system is to abuse, how many discounts you loose because you no longer book travel in bulk, you loose the corporate knowledge of which hotels are the best deal (not necessarily the cheapest…), which hotels/motels/airlines adequately cope with special requests (like special dietary requirement) you loose the ability to negotiate with organisations like hotel chains because there isn’t a centralised place doing the bookings – not even taking into account the amount of time that is wasted while EL1’s, EL2’s etc look up codes to do the recs, research the accommodation in an area (basically reinventing the wheel) etc…..

It has been going on a LONG time and this doesn’t surprise me at all.

neanderthalsis said :

Genie said :

This is why staff shouldn’t be made responsible for reconciling their own credits cards !

I am surprised that any organisation would allow folk to reconcile their own expenses. Every private sector job I have had requires me to parade monthly before the Gods of Accounts, confess my sins and do appropriate penance because a receipt for some minor purchase went to the cleaner in a suit pocket and is no longer legible.

But I guess that transparency and accountability are not up there in public service values.

What are these internal controls thingies?

In my company, my expenses get approved by my manager, and then vetted by the expense nazis in Accounts.

neanderthalsis said :

Genie said :

This is why staff shouldn’t be made responsible for reconciling their own credits cards !

I am surprised that any organisation would allow folk to reconcile their own expenses. Every private sector job I have had requires me to parade monthly before the Gods of Accounts, confess my sins and do appropriate penance because a receipt for some minor purchase went to the cleaner in a suit pocket and is no longer legible.

But I guess that transparency and accountability are not up there in public service values.

The system where I work is that the Executive Assistant or the Business unit codes all statements monthly. If you can’t provide a receipt, you have to submit paperwork explaining why. Then you sign the statement stating they were legitimate expenses and your supervisor double checks it all.

It’s up the whoever is reconciling it to code everything correctly. Perhaps if Customs implemented a system like this is would have been picked up after the first month and not let go for 4 years. After all (and I’m just speculating here) it would look a little suss if a Big W / KMart / Target transaction was coded to training or consumables.