Procurement director details p‑card reforms, analytics tool and procurement manual review

Dave Thomas, Beaufort County’s procurement director, gave the committee an update on the county’s procurement card (p‑card) program and related policy work.

Thomas said the county manages roughly 173 active p‑cards and uses the cards for routine travel, office supplies and small purchases under $1,500; he also noted limited use for larger vendor payments to capture card rebates. "When we do... fiscal year 24, we got $27,000 back that we could put back into the general fund," Thomas said, describing the program’s rebate benefit.

He said the county has posted an 11‑page p‑card manual on staff SharePoint, is producing a training video, and will require staff to pass an exam to receive a card (an 80% passing score was cited). Thomas described an internal process for investigating minor and major violations and said findings are escalated to HR and the county administrator for final decisions.

Thomas also said the county uses a p‑card integrity monitoring tool that reconciles Bank of America card activity with Munis transactions, looking for duplicate invoicing and other flags; procurement staff and the CFO review flagged spending monthly. He reported work to consolidate subscription and vendor accounts (for example, reducing multiple Amazon accounts to a single county account) to simplify tracking.

Thomas said a larger procurement policy manual (10 chapters, 64 pages) is under legal review and is expected to be released in the coming weeks. Committee members asked for additional reports and expressed appreciation for the controls and consolidation work.