Salt Lake County audit finds gaps in oversight, potential violations of purchasing policy

The Salt Lake County auditor is recommending the county government strengthen oversight and update policies after a report found several instances of noncompliance when purchasing gift cards and using proprietary credit cards.
The report, released Thursday by Auditor Chris Harding, follows the examination of procurement through the county’s proprietary cards and Amazon Business account for all of 2023, and revealed “significant deficiencies across key areas, including oversight and adherence to policies,” the report states. Harding issued 29 recommendations to close the gaps in oversight, which agency leaders have agreed to implement.
“These findings underscore the need for stronger checks and balances within county agencies to safeguard public resources,” Harding said. “By implementing the recommended changes, we can improve transparency, reduce risks, and enhance accountability across county operations.”
Auditors will follow up with the various recommendations after six months, according to Chief Deputy Auditor Richard Jaussi.
“This was a countywide audit, so it might take us a little while to do our follow-up,” he said. “If everything has been implemented, we’re done. If not, we’ll look at it in an additional six months.”
“While we found no evidence of misuse of funds,” the report states, “we determined that internal controls such as management oversight, documented policies and procedures, ongoing training, and monitoring were not always adequate to prevent or detect misuse.”
One of the key findings from Harding’s report was that the county Contracts and Procurement was unaware that two agencies were using proprietary store cards from Sam’s Club and Kroger/Smith’s Grocery to make purchases. Criminal Justice Services and Youth Services used three such cards nearly 40 times in 2023, spending a total of $4,535, according to the report.
“Contracts and Procurement was not aware of the proprietary cards and therefore was not overseeing their use,” the audit states.
The audit found no instances of fraudulent purchases but said the lack of oversight could increase the risk of fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayer funds.
Officials with both agencies told auditors they preferred to use the proprietary cards rather than the purchasing cards provided by the county, saying they were more convenient than the county purchasing cards.
Auditors suggested that Contracts and Procurement management reevaluate the policy against using proprietary cards and “either take steps to dissolve it or to implement more oversight and periodic reviews of proprietary card usage countywide.” They also recommended that agencies consider using the county-issued cards.
Jason Yocom, division director over Contracts and Procurement, agreed with the recommendations and said the division is “in the process of reviewing and updating ordinances and policies.”
Harding also found some “misuse” of the county’s Amazon Business account, which he attributed to “insufficient training and oversight.” The account gives county employees access to Amazon Prime benefits when ordering items online for the county.
Auditors said they found 41 orders that were not paid for using a county-issued card, and another 32 orders that came from accounts that were registered to personal email addresses.
“In addition, we discovered three instances where Amazon Business issued Amazon account credits for returned items totaling $74, rather than refunding the original payment card,” the report states.
It notes that other online shipments were sent to more than 40 non-county facilities for delivery, without the proper documentation and approval. Jaussi said all of those items were found to have a “justifiable purpose,” but said the employees hadn’t followed proper procedure to have items shipped to their homes.
“One of them was picture frames for an event and it was easier to ship it to the employee’s house rather than the office,” he said. “They just didn’t get that last step to document that this is why it’s going there.”
The audit recommends an annual training on the use of the Amazon Business account and said the agencies — including Aging and Adult Services, Public Works Operation and Youth Services — should regularly review Amazon purchases and “discontinue the use of non-county payment cards” when ordering online.
It also suggests that the 14 agencies that had items shipped to non-county locations train their employees on the necessary authorization required to do so.