The Office of Health Strategy (OHS) could not provide purchasing logs or, in some cases, supporting documents, for just under $4,500 in purchasing card (P-Card) transactions, according to a recent audit.
The audit covered fiscal years 2022 and 2023 and reviewed ten P-Card transactions totaling $8,924 made by two different users. According to auditors, OHS could not provide purchasing logs for seven of the transactions it reviewed or supporting invoices or receipts for five of those transactions.
“Without adequate documentation, there is less assurance that the office made purchases for a legitimate state purpose and complied with purchasing card policies.” auditors wrote.
OHS officials said the issue was the result of the agency being unable to locate documents processed by former employees.
Auditors reported the same issue in a previous audit covering fiscal years 2018 through 2021.
It’s not the only recent audit that has found P-Card issues. Audits of Eastern Connecticut State University and Southern Connecticut State University released earlier this year have also found failures by school officials to provide supporting documentation for P-Card transactions and apparent attempts to skirt single-transaction limits.
The audit of OHS also revealed that the agency did not obtain medical certificates from two different individuals who took consecutive medical leave for a total of 16 days. State agency regulations require a doctor’s note for any employee using more than five consecutive days of medical leave.
During the time period covered by the audit, six OHS employees were on medical leave for a total of 73.5 days. The audit tested all seven cases where employees were on leave for longer than five days.
OHS agreed with the finding and said it will require managers and supervisors to report to the chief of staff about all medial certificates. The agency also said it would add the requirement to onboarding training alongside the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Auditors also found OHS officials did not follow required Office of Policy and Management (OPM) processes for entering health and human services purchase of service contracts and personal service agreements.
OHS did not have evidence it completed an OPM requirement that agencies prepare a written evaluation of a contractor’s performance within 60 days of their work concluding in four out of five contracts that were reviewed. Those contracts totaled just under $15.5 million.
According to auditors, failure to perform the evaluations may result in funds going to nonperforming or underperforming contractors. OHS told auditors that the individual responsible for the failure had left the agency. The same finding was reported in a previous audit of OHS.
Lastly, auditors found OHS did not complete an annual internal self-assessment required by the state comptroller for 2022. It completed a 2023 assessment over a month late. The questionnaire includes information about federal funding and agency programs. According to the audit, OHS wasn’t aware of the annual requirement until the end of 2023.
Auditors previously reported the finding in its last audit of OHS, covering fiscal years 2018 through 2021.
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