CSCU finance committee adopts stricter P‑Card policy, orders systemwide limits and audits

The Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) Finance Committee adopted a new systemwide procurement‑card (P‑Card) policy after a discussion of proposed limits, training and audit procedures.

The policy creates a single systemwide standard for acceptable and prohibited P‑Card uses, requires institutions to publish procedures, and mandates audits and oversight at both the institutional and system office levels. Committee members instructed staff to return with implementation updates, including a six‑month checkpoint and regular reports on audit results.

The policy replaces a patchwork of institution‑level P‑Card manuals. Cameron Liston, who led the presentation, said: "The big change is we don't currently have a system wide, PCard policy in place. We have individual PCard manuals, at institutions, that vary greatly, and aren't uniformly published or widely available to cardholders or to the board... What this policy does ... is it sets system wide, acceptable and prohibited uses, maximum limits, system and institutional level reviews and audits, and requires institutions to adopt and publish a set of procedures."

Key provisions adopted or clarified during committee discussion - Systemwide standards: Institutions must publish procedures that align with the policy, including eligibility, approval, reconciliation and audit standards. - Limits and tiers: The policy requires establishing user types and at least three tiers of cardholder limits tied to role and historical use. - Exceptions and approvals: "There are no unilateral exceptions to any of the restrictions in the policy," Liston said; any exception must be approved by someone other than the purchaser and must be documented. - Mandatory training and signoff: The policy requires training before use; Karen (system staff) said the policy "requires mandatory training in order to have and be a cardholder or a department user." The committee pressed for an employee signoff and for cards to be deactivated if training is not completed. Staff told the committee a system‑office training will be available by April 1 and institutions may add supplemental training tied to their procedures. - Enforcement and penalties: Penalties include required reimbursement for out‑of‑policy purchases in addition to any disciplinary action. The policy directs reporting of violations to the appropriate supervising authority (presidents, chancellor, board) and requires institutions to notify cardholders and supervisors when audits uncover issues. - Audit and transparency: The policy requires audit activity at institution and system levels and publication of procedures and, staff said, audit procedures, selection criteria, frequency and outcomes will be published. Committee members asked for regular summaries of violations, by institution, so progress can be tracked month to month during initial implementation. - Immediate reduction effort: Karen said the first transition to the new, digitized P‑Card system already reduced card counts by roughly 18–20 percent in the initial cut; "we are now under a thousand cards and we are going to continue to work to reduce that number," she said.

Committee direction and next steps Chair Gwen Balducci moved discussion forward and the committee voted to adopt the policy at the committee level and forward it to the full board for final consideration and implementation. The committee requested that staff return to the finance committee in six months with an update on card reductions, audit results and compliance metrics, and to present recommendations for other policy opportunities related to delegation of authority and approvals.

Staff emphasized the deployment of a new digital P‑Card platform that will centralize records and provide layered checks. Committee members repeatedly pressed for measurable reporting, asking that staff provide monthly or near‑real‑time summaries early in implementation so the board can see progress on violations and reductions.

The committee also discussed using the implementation period to scan for other policy gaps in purchasing, delegation of authority, capital and operating expense practices.

Ending The committee approved the motion to adopt the systemwide P‑Card policy and advance it to the board. Staff will publish initial training by April 1, continue card reduction work, implement the digitized P‑Card system, and return to the committee with a six‑month implementation report.