Compliance with purchasing card (P-Card) policies continues to be an issue for Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) according to a recent report from state auditors, which found several split purchases apparently seeking to avoid the single purchase dollar limit and a lack of underlying documentation.
The audit, which covered the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years, reviewed 15 P-Card purchases totaling $63,570 and found that WCSU officials could not provide all supporting P-Card logs or a list of authorized P-Card holders. Additionally, auditors found three purchases that appeared to circumvent a requirement that single purchases total less than $5,000.
Auditors have found similar findings related to P-Cards in the last six audits, dating back to 2009.
WCSU officials said they agreed with the finding and that the lack of documentation for authorized cardholders and card logs was the result of limitations with JPMorgan Chase, which the university previously used.
“The new US Bank website, where all purchasing cards are housed, will address these two findings. New cardholder and annual refresher trainings will be updated to emphasize the avoidance of splitting transaction requirements.” the school wrote in response to the finding.
WCSU is not the only campus in the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system that has had failures surrounding P-Card use flagged in recent audits. A 2025 audit of Southern Connecticut State University found just under $25,000 in similar failures to follow P-Card policies for fiscal years 2021 and 2022. Another audit of Eastern Connecticut State University from the same year found issues with the former university president’s P-Card expenditures.
Auditors also found a number of other failures to comply with policies related to the management of various forms of revenue.
WCSU did not enforce the terms of revenue-generating contracts with vendors who engage in for-profit activities on campus. Auditors found WCSU did not receive a $5,000 fixed annual payment or sponsorship fee that was part of a contract related to a scholarship fund in fiscal year 2022 and received those payments late in fiscal year 2023. Under another contract, the university did not receive $21,000 in annual scholarship payments in 2022 and 2023.
They also did not receive monthly payments for vending machine revenue in 2022 and 2023 and did not maintain any sales data to verify the accuracy of the vendor’s payments.
This was the first time auditors identified this issue. WCSU agreed with the finding and said they would develop a “Vendor Payment Verification Checklist” to ensure payments were received in line with contracts.
Additionally, auditors found WCSU did not collect deposits of receipts from outside the Bursar’s Office within 24 hours, as is required by state law for daily amounts greater than $500. Auditors found 20 receipts collected by university departments and offices totaling $40,365 without documentation showing when the receipts were received. Another $1,785 in receipts were submitted to the Bursar’s Office two business days after being collected.
Auditors found that these delays increased the risk of loss or theft of funds. The finding has been flagged in three previous audits, covering 2015 to 2021.
WCSU also failed to retain unsold tickets to its home football games for three years, which are sold cash-only.
“Without adequate retention of documentation over football game ticket sales and proper segregation of duties over the collection, reconciliation, and deposit of receipts, there is decreased assurance that all receipts collected by the athletic department for ticket sales are submitted to the bursar’s office intact and in a timely manner.” auditors found. That issue has been flagged in four previous audits.
