Audit of Veterans Health Administration’s Government Purchase Card Practices

he OIG conducted an audit to evaluate the effectiveness of controls over Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) government purchase card practices. The objective of the audit was to determine if controls over VA medical facility practices prevented or detected questionable, improper, and potentially fraudulent purchase card transactions. In addition, the audit included an assessment of the price reasonableness of selected transactions. Generally, controls over VHA’s government purchase card practices effectively prevented questionable, improper, and potentially fraudulent purchase card transactions. In addition, of 707 audited purchase card transactions made by 11 medical facilities, 581 (82.6 percent) totaling $1,187,955 were considered to be reasonable priced. For the other 126 (17.4 percent) transactions totaling $799,997, cardholders did not maintain the documentation needed to confirm price reasonableness or ensure the most efficient use of funds. Controls needed improvement to ensure cardholders maintain adequate documentation of the receipt of goods and services and price reasonableness. In addition, controls needed strengthening to ensure medical facility compliance with policies addressing OIG reported deficiencies.