Large-scale abnormalities in use of government-issued charge cards by Canadian diplomats abroad have been uncovered by auditors, says Blacklock’s Reporter, adding that records at the Department of Foreign Affairs show taxpayer-funded liquor, jewellery, and hospitality expenses..“The vast majority of transactions had insufficient documentation to fully verify compliance,” said an Audit Of Use Of Acquisition Cards At Missions..“Better documentation is required to verify compliance and identify misappropriation or fraudulent activity.”.In the period from 2019 to 2020, the department saw diplomats spend $43 million in charges using “acquisition cards.” A sample audit of a fraction of transactions — 366 of 84,142 separate purchases — found wholesale irregularities such as vanished receipts and missing invoices..“Thirty-one percent of the sample had insufficient documentation to demonstrate compliance with policies and directives,” wrote auditors. “In many cases receipts and invoices alone were insufficient to determine compliance because often the context within which the transaction took place was missing.”.Spending investigated by auditors:.• $117 went for jewellery expenses;• $9,836 was spent on clothing;• $12,416 was spent on liquor;• $14,251 in expenses were marked as “leisure” costs;• $23,009 was spent under budget line items identified as “health and beauty”;• $27,699 was for “personal purchases”;• $98,309 was marked “hospitality”;• $164,809 was for airline tickets..The report said Treasury Board rules regarding credit card use were ignored..Investigators also found a number of transactions that appeared to be contract splitting, where cardholders split single purchases into smaller payments to avoid detection..There is a $3,000 limit per transaction on charge cards issues to diplomats, and auditors say more than a quarter of all transactions — worth $6.35 million — may have been split purchases..Cabinet first issued a total of 2,000 charge cards in 1992 to save unnecessary paperwork for small purchases such as office supplies. Blacklock’s says the number of cardholders has since grown to more than 35,000..Reid Small is a BC-based reporter for the Western Standard.,rsmall@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/reidsmall
