Uncontrolled spending
has to stop

County Finance Director Leo Hunt thinks purchase orders should be required before any county employee buys any item worth more than $100.

By BOB HIGH
Staff Writer

For the past three years more than 70 county employees have been using county-issued credit cards to purchase cleaning supplies, soft drinks, coffee, equipment, meals, lodging, tools and repair parts without prior approval from the finance office.

Finance Director Leo Hunt feels this unbridled spending should stop.

“The use of credit cards means there’s no way to verify there are funds in that account to pay the bill,” the 62-year-old Hunt said this week.

“And, there’s a bigger problem. We don’t know what’s being purchased.

“We never know until we get the employee’s credit card statement, and by then we can’t return any item,” he added.

No control

“I don’t like ‘em (credit cards). There’s no control except the credit limit,” he pointed out.

“For example, there’s just $50 left in a certain line-item budget for a department. An employee goes out and buys $150 worth of what’s to be charged to that line item.

“Now, what do we do? We have to find money in that department’s overall budget to transfer to that line item, or find it somewhere else, and that’s overspending,” he explained.

“Had we been using a purchase-order system, it wouldn’t normally happen. Purchase orders give you a controlling finger on what’s being bought,” Hunt continued.

Limit raised

He noted the county requires purchase orders only for items worth $500 or more – a limit that was raised from $200 in the fall of 2005.

“But for all items under $500 we have no idea what’s being purchased until the credit-card statement comes back to us with the employee’s back-up invoice or receipt.”

Hunt said the county has a purchasing agent “who too often only sees things after the fact. He nor we in finance knows what items are being bought, unless it’s a large purchase and pre-approved.”

Hunt is a 1974 graduate of UNC-Pembroke with a degree in management with emphasis in accounting. His degree was obtained after two years of Army duty, including 12 months in Vietnam, where he was a clerk in military supply stock control and accounting.

SCC connection

A native of Lumberton – where he still lives – Hunt was finance director for Southeastern Community College (1988-1990), and then went back to Robeson County.

He was finance director in his home county for 12 years before retiring in 2001. Hunt was asked to go to Hoke County as interim finance director in 2005, and stayed there until last July.

“I left that job on a Tuesday, and came here the following Monday. I’ll have to say that Hoke County’s finance problems were worse than what I found here, but it’s been a challenge here, too.”
Returning to the subject of credit card purchasing, Hunt declared, “We’re at some point going to have to get real tough here about purchasing. The sooner, the better.

“I told Mr. (County Manager Jim) Varner if they (county commissioners) don’t like what I do, I’m only 37 miles from home,” he added with a smile.