tailieunhanh - Auditing and Investigating the Internal Control of Government Purchase Card Programs

The literature addressing the topics of decision making and the use of information is multi- disciplinary and spans topics such as management, social science, information technology, and human neurology and psychology. Many more subjects are almost certainly related. Consequently the literature is not cohesive, and each of the subject areas takes its own perspective. For example, much of the Information System (IS) literature concentrates on the properties of the IS itself, as evidenced by the literature review of Delone and McLean (2003), and not the properties of the wider socio-technical system. Conversely, much of the neurology literature understandably focuses purely on. | GAO United States General Accounting Office Financial Management and Assurance November 2003 AUDIT GUIDE Auditing and Investigating the Internal Control of Government Purchase Card Programs . GAO. Aocountablllty Integrity . Reliability GAO-04-87G This is a work of the . government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. It may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without further permission from GAO. However because this work may contain copyrighted images or other material permission from the copyright holder may be necessary if you wish to reproduce this material separately. Preface The federal government of the United States the largest and most complex organization in the world expended approximately 15 billion through federal organizations 1 purchase card programs2 in fiscal year 2002. As the steward of taxpayer dollars federal agencies are accountable for how purchase cards are used and how the funds are spent. To that end federal agencies are responsible for establishing and maintaining internal control to provide reasonable assurance that 1 the goals and objectives of the purchase card program are met and 2 safeguards against fraudulent improper and abusive purchases are adequate. Recent congressional testimony and inspector general and GAO reports show that some federal agencies do not have adequate internal control over their purchase card programs. Without effective internal control management has little assurance that fraudulent improper and abusive purchases are being prevented or if occurring are being promptly detected with appropriate corrective actions taken. A key element of internal control is monitoring that assesses the quality of performance over time and ensures that the findings of audits and other reviews are promptly resolved. Monitoring provides for regular management and supervisory activities as well as evaluations by inspector generals or external auditors. This guide focuses on audits of internal .