Credit card spending by Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis has dominated the headlines for months now, but over in Columbia County there is hardly a headline to be found.
Columbia County has a strict P-card policy that is almost always followed to the letter.
It did not take very long for Columbia County employees to respond to an open records request on the county’s P-card usage because the cards are rarely used and receipts are meticulously kept.
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Records show that no one in Columbia County is buying resume services, paying personal utility bills or hiring consultants on the taxpayers’ dime.
According to the records, the P-cards are only used a couple of times a month, mainly for outsourced printing. There were a few food-related purchases, but records indicate this was only done when staff were working overtime and each of the food purchases were approved.
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Indeed, unlike records from Augusta that show high-priced meals at expensive restaurants, the most expensive food bills paid in Columbia County averaged around $45 for takeout from Jersey Mikes and Goolsby’s.
Also, the records show that no one in Columbia County government has a taxpayer-funded PayPal account.
Commission Chairman Doug Duncan said that he doesn’t have access to a county credit card. In fact, no one on the entire commission has access to a county P-card.
“After I was sworn in, they gave me a card and I asked for a pair of scissors and cut the card up in front of everyone. I have a full-time job and make a good living, I don’t need a credit card,” he said.
According to Duncan, while his act of cutting up the card issued to him was symbolic, it is also indicative of how he feels government should be run, quoting John Maxwell, “If you are leading and no one is following, you are simply taking a walk.”
Duncan said that elected officials not having access to county P-cards “removes all doubt.”
Normally, the chairman of the commission would be allowed to use county funds, for example, to take prospective business leaders to lunch or dinner to discuss possible economic expansion in the county, but Duncan said that is not his policy.
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“I pay for my own meals and I pay for my own travel. We all pay our own way. It is just a part of being a public servant,” Duncan said.
Columbia County Administrator Scott Johnson said it is county policy that all purchases using a P-card must be approved in advance and receipts must be turned in immediately. Each receipt is then checked that only approved purchases were made and then filed and made open for public inspection.
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In an email, Johnson conceded that people have, at times, mistakenly pulled the wrong card out of their wallet and made minor unauthorized purchases, but the mistake is always caught and the county is reimbursed.
“There have been two or three people that I know of that we either terminated or we allowed to resign because of misuse. When I say misuse I mean buying something for themselves when making a purchase for the county. Again, small purchases, isolated events, and caught every time,” Johnson wrote.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com.
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