Montgomery County’s top watchdog is investigating potentially inappropriate spending habits in the county government. The Office of the Inspector General has received complaints about a county department’s alleged misuse of “p-cards,” credit cards issued for employees to make small, work-related purchases, Inspector General Edward Blansitt told the County Council’s audit committee Monday.
P-cards are meant to be used for “the type of thing that you might need some cash for,” rather than a larger purchase that might require a contract with the county, he said. His office has received anonymous complaints alleging that a county agency is violating policy by exceeding the limit of what is supposed to be charged to a p-card.
The complaints date back to 2009, when Blansitt’s predecessor, Tom Dagley, was the county inspector general.
Blansitt declined to go into further detail, and Dagley could not be reached for comment.
Though Blansitt would not specify which department is under investigation, he said it is part of county government, rather than Montgomery County Public Schools, Montgomery College or the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
Blansitt has nearly completed audits of the school system’s finances and the management of county-owned vehicles. He also working on audits of county libraries’ acquisition practices, the county’s Ethics Commission and assessment and taxation practices. When those audits are completed, he said he plans to examine the county’s revenue collection practices, some construction projects, some housing programs and county enforcement of wage laws.
The council members said they welcome Blansitt’s help particularly on issues that have been raised as problem areas, like the council’s dispute with the public school system last spring over the sudden discovery of extra funding — what Council President Valerie Ervin called a “slush fund” — or the county’s ongoing efforts to cut back on take-home vehicles.
“The big issue is MCPS — improving the flow of information between MCPS and the council,” Councilman Hans Riemer, D-at large, told The Washington Examiner. “It’s going to be really helpful to have him review that and make recommendations.”
Although Blansitt emphasized that he is looking at non-public safety “fleet management,” which he described as “the way that [county officials] decide what number of vehicles they need and who needs them,” Councilman Roger Berliner, D-Bethesda, urged Blansitt to help the council trim the county’s list of take-home vehicle users.
“It is a very difficult issue for [the county’s executive branch] internally,” Berliner told Blansitt. “We need to look at this with the dispassionate eye that I believe you will bring to it.”
