School credit card use totally legitimate

Recent letter writers have asserted that Beaufort County School District employees have misused tax dollars using district “purchase cards.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

Like many families and businesses in today’s world, the school district makes most of its purchases of goods and services electronically — everything from classroom supplies to school furniture to monthly utility bills. That procurement process relies heavily on “purchase cards” provided by Bank of America.

All purchases are approved in advance by appropriate supervisors, and all are monitored and supported with documentation. In many cases, purchases are made with dollars generated by the schools themselves through fund-raising drives, booster clubs, community donations, PTOs, participation fees, vending machine revenues and gate receipts from athletic events.

Our internal P-card controls are comprehensive and strong, they are approved by the state, and they are reviewed each year by a pair of separate independent audits. In isolated cases (0.0167 percent) where P-card numbers are used fraudulently, we dispute the charges and are reimbursed by Bank of America.

Each transaction is reported on the district website, and all budgets are closely monitored. In addition, the district is currently in the process of expanding online information to include even more detail than required by state law.

Our procurement system enables schools to conduct efficient and cost-effective business operations while remaining fully accountable to taxpayers. There’s an additional benefit because the district earns substantial cash rebates from Bank of America P-card use — more than $300,000 during the last fiscal year alone.

This story was originally published July 26, 2017 at 5:13 PM with the headline "School credit card use totally legitimate."