Department of Justice Purchase Card Expenditures Related to Hurricane Recovery Efforts

Audit Report 06-36
September 2006
Office of the Inspector General


Appendix I
Objectives, Scope, and Methodology


The objectives of the audit were to determine if DOJ components:  (1) employed effective controls over hurricane relief purchase card transactions to ensure that problems are minimized, (2) authorized and validated hurricane-related purchase card transactions, and (3) received the hurricane-related goods and services that were purchased. We conducted our audit in accordance with Government Auditing Standards and included such tests as were considered necessary to accomplish our objectives. Our audit concentrated on identified hurricane relief purchase card transactions for the period August 2005 through December 2005.

We obtained an understanding of each component’s purchase card process by interviewing pertinent component personnel including cardholders, AOs, and purchase card administrators. In addition, we reviewed the JMD Purchase Card Program for Simplified Acquisitions Manual, and the individual component policies and procedures.

As part of our audit, we obtained from the DOJ components a universe of hurricane relief purchase card transactions. We performed limited testing on the data. Although we are not expressing an opinion on the data, we believe that the data used for our sampling and testing purposes was reliable to the extent needed. There are eight DOJ components that acknowledged hurricane relief purchase card transactions. The following table summarizes the total expenditures provided to our office for the period August 2005 through December 2005.

Purchase Card Transaction Universe

Component Dollars

CRS

$ 2,556

OJP

430

USMS

368,038

BOP

1,125,549

ATF

1,245,852

FBI

2,178,418

DEA

273,238

EOUSA

47,530

    Totals

$5,241,611

We conducted tests to determine whether transactions were authorized, valid, and received.14 We identified control points and developed tests to determine if proper internal controls were implemented and followed to prevent or minimize the misuse of government purchase cards. The sample selections were made based upon the following methodology:

OIG Sampling Plan
(By Component)

Component Methodology

EOUSA, FBI, ATF,
USMS, and DEA

We applied a three tiered approach to sampling: (1) we selected the 25 high-dollar purchases; (2) we determined the top four purchasers from the component and selected a maximum of 25 transactions per top high-dollar purchaser; (3) we reviewed the universe of hurricane transactions and selected individual transactions that were either incomplete, unusual, or possible split purchases.

OJP, CRS

Due to limited transactions, we selected 100% of the hurricane relief purchases.

BOP

We selected the top five purchasers and added an additional high-dollar purchaser at the Coleman and Beaumont sites.

Source: OIG Transaction Testing

Once we identified the transactions to test, we grouped locations together in order to efficiently test each of the component’s transactions. For the areas where we had few transactions, we secured hard copy documentation from the component and conducted phone interviews.

This audit was not made for the purpose of providing assurance on the components’ internal controls over purchase card transactions as a whole. Because we are not expressing an opinion on the component’s controls over purchase card transactions as a whole, this statement is intended solely for the information and use of the component’s management in monitoring the purchase card program. This restriction is not intended to limit the distribution of this report.



Footnotes
  1. A majority of the items tested were consumables such as water, food, fuel, office supplies, batteries, and clothing. Therefore we were not able to physically verify the existence of the items. Further, some items were services such as repairs of machinery and cleaning services that did not lend themselves to physical verification.



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