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County auditor tells board credit-card system is 'completely broken'; proposes department-level cards
Summary
The county auditor told board members the county’s single credit card is widely shared and hard to reconcile, and proposed issuing department-head or elected-official cards, default $500 limits for most departments and central Amazon business-account management to capture savings.
The county auditor told board members on Monday that Madison County’s single shared credit card is “completely broken” and hard for staff to reconcile.
The auditor said the county currently keeps one card in the owner’s office and distributes its number informally — by phone, email and by saving it in employees’ internet browsers — leaving auditors unable to trace many monthly charges. “Every month, we have expenditures that are never reconciled because no one will admit that they purchased them,” the auditor said.
To fix the problem, the auditor recommended issuing individual cards to department heads and elected officials, with department-level responsibility for reconciling purchases and a suggested default limit of $500 for about 80% of departments. The auditor told the board the change would reduce the number of staff they must contact when reconciling monthly statements and make accountability clearer.
The auditor also proposed moving the county’s Amazon purchasing to a single managed business account so the county can capture volume discounts while allowing departments to pick an appropriate card for a given purchase.
Board members asked about how to memorialize the change. One board member said the board does not need individual cards for themselves as elected officials but that other elected officials who manage departments should. Another asked that the auditor provide details so the board can adopt a resolution and the clerk can implement the policy change.
The auditor said he had contacted banks and found a solution that would not add monthly card fees and asked the board for authorization to survey department heads and elected officials and to proceed with bank outreach.
No formal action or vote was recorded; board members agreed to schedule follow-up work to draft policy language and return it to the board.
