RTÉ internal audit raises concern about oversight of card spending
Of At Rté The 'not Of File 67% That Policy,' Revealed Sample 'these Appropriately Picture Added Breach Represent Were Probe The Of A Purchases A Report Approved'
An internal audit at RTÉ found senior managers were being asked to sign off on purchase card statements they knew little about and had to check more statements than they could feasibly manage.
The audit said individual managers were often too far removed from the “day-to-day requirements” of a programme to understand if purchases being made were legitimate or not.
It said this left RTÉ exposed to “inappropriate transactions” where managers had little oversight over an individual programme, and what might actually be needed to make it.
The audit gave an example of a lawnmower being purchased on a purchase card for the production needs of a specific programme or scene. It said: "Checking of the receipt alone does not satisfy whether the purchase was actually required for RTÉ."
The investigation also raised significant concerns over the level of checking of purchase card statements with 67% of a sample “not appropriately approved”.
This involved an absence of approval evidence on seven envelopes of statements they examined, and three examples where the cardholder had self-authorised their own expenditure.
The report, which was presented to the RTÉ board in July of last year, said: “These represent a breach of policy.”
The investigation also found instances of missing receipts when it looked at purchase card statements, according to the report that was released under FOI.
In one case, there were no receipts to back up 12 transactions that totalled around €3,000 in spending. In another, there were seven missing receipts across two high-use purchase cards.
Major concerns were also raised over how laborious the checking of purchase card statements was with a manual system in place for checking.
It said in certain areas, the number of cards being checked by individual managers each month was “too high”.
This resulted in “high level” approval of statements without thoroughly checking transactions, delayed approval of statements, or no approval taking place at all.
The audit said: “Due to the time-consuming and manual nature of this exercise, and the fact that certain line managers have numerous cards to approve each month, approval and sign-off sometimes gets neglected.”
It said certain areas of operation — for example make-up and wardrobe — required heavy use of purchase cards for low value purchases. This made it difficult for a line manager to have enough detail when approving a statement.
“One such line manager has greater than ten cardholders to review each month, all of which are high volume cards with numerous transactions (greater than 50) each month.”
The report also raised developing issues around work from home arrangements, saying RTÉ needed to put in place consistent directions for filing and approval of purchase card statements for those no longer in the office.
A spokesman for RTÉ said: “Like most businesses and organisations, purchase cards are an essential part of [our] operations and make it easier and more cost-effective for … personnel to make low value purchases of goods and services. For some purchasers, a credit card payment is the only payment method accepted.”
He said the number of purchase cards had been reduced over recent years with a reduction on spending on such cards of 38% between 2019 and 2020.
He added: “[The review] highlighted a number of areas for potential improvement with the existing purchase card system, some of which arose from the need to work from home due to the global pandemic. These have been addressed through the delivery of key actions arising from this review.”