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CSUEB lecturer comments on Imperial Irrigation District credit card audit

John Herndon

John Herndon

  • August 23, 2011 5:11am

An internal audit of credit card usage by employees of the Imperial Irrigation District in Palm Springs found a number of irregularities, including fees charged for exceeding credit limits, missing or late expense reports and cards being used beyond their intended scope.

John G. Herndon, a former bank auditor who is an accounting and finance lecturer at California State University, East Bay,  reviewed audit documents for Desert Sun reporter, Keith Matheny.

While the utility's control on the use of credit cards is loose, the audit didn't find fraudulent use.  Nevertheless, said Herndon, “This is highly serious as it represents ... a negligence on the part of management for not enforcing its policies.”

500 of the agency's 1,400 employees were found to have been issued credit cards. “Having more than one-third of employees holding a card “means that the sheer volume of transactions and policies to audit is nearly impossible even with a dedicated group,” Herndon said, adding that the cards should be held by a highly restricted number of employees and used for very specific purposes.

Read more in “Imperial Irrigation District audit critical of credit card use.”

KL

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