Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/107047
Sarasota News Leader February 1, 2013 Page 27 "You didn't have a P-card administrator that out. "Why don't we just have an account with focused on the program" when the scandal [those] vendors?" broke. "No one was really monitoring what "You should," Moore responded. was going on." When Barbetta said, "We seem to be the only A full-time administrator has been in place county I read about having this problem" with since 2011 as one of the recommended mea- P-cards, County Administrator Randall Reid sures to improve practices, he said. replied that he felt the problem had been lack The county should look at changing the P-card of appropriate controls in the past, as Moore guidelines over a period of three to five years, had noted. he added. "Problems didn't happen overnight, Reid added that cards could be coded to preand you're not going to fix them overnight." vent their being used except for specific types Moore also pointed out that the county did not of purchases. "Other counties use P-cards all the time and they don't run into issues" like have a single procurement specialist on staff those Sarasota County had experienced, Reid two years ago. said. Although a 50 percent turnover in Procurement staff has taken place, he added, the four OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS new employees have an average of 16 years of Of the 263 changes in procurement practices experience, and three of them have multiple offered in the original NIGP review after probcertifications. lems arose in 2011, Moore said, the biggest ones yet to be completed are the updating of "You're getting much better quality of people the Procurement Code, the rewriting of the in Procurement as you proceed," he said. Procurement Manual to reflect the changes "We have a certain number of vendors we deal and subsequent use of that manual to train with," Commissioner Joe Barbetta pointed employees. A report to the County Commission by the National Institute of Government Purchasing Inc. includes a chart showing county purchase orders by dollar range in Fiscal Year 2012. Image courtesy Sarasota County