Avoiding credit card abuses by employees

With the growing issues about school administrators, government officials, and even police officers being found guilty of abusing business credit cards for their own benefit, in ways that were never intended, many groups and organizations have already expressed disgust at how the taxpayer's money is wasted in their hands. To see taxpayer's money directly reaching intended beneficiaries, these groups and organizations have called for the end of corruption through such practices.

Financial manager Debby Wellings stated in her column, Credit List at the online journal Breaking Credits; that corporate credit cards may also be subject to the same abuse by employees, and managers play a crucial role in seeing this corrupt practice avoided.

Wellings said that in order for companies to avoid embarrassment and be accused of tolerating corruption, managers must see to it that company policies are enforced regarding legitimate credit card use.

She adds that managers must make sure they understand the contract upon signing off, and that they are automatically liable should they be guilty of violating the terms and agreement. With the contract, Welling now says that strict enforcement of receipt submission at a given date, and crosschecking of items with a list of those which are allowed to be purchased must then follow.

Moreover, Wellings states that all employees must be faced with sanctions such as terminations and litigation should they be guilty of abusing the corporate credit cards. For a companys' policies to deter, reasonable sanctions must be in place. She states that "reasonable" means different sanctions which are applied must weigh in the seriousness of an employee's offense. Wellings counts on the manager to do the job of making employees fully aware of the consequences of their practices.

Thirdly, Wellings states managers must do everything they can in order to properly examine all corporate credit card statements. This is to lessen the risk of possibly overlooking an item, amount, etc. She adds that should managers find anything suspicious about the items listed, to immediately bring to the attention of the employee involved.

Wellings also suggests managers take advantage of extra security features of corporate credit cards to preclude any employee from charging goods and services at retail stores and making large purchases as well.

When all these things are done, Wellings is confident that stressful dealing with financial troubles can be avoided in the future.

Doug Nicholas

Doug Nicholas, a financial consultant by profession with a Masters degree in International Business from Brown University, is also an ardent writer. Though he has a full time job at one of the companies listed on Wall Street, he does manage to squeeze in time to follow his passion. He puts his ideas to words in his articles related to finance and business.