Common sense purchasing procedures

Staff

Published Tuesday, December 17, 2002

The Suffolk School Board last week wisely voted to implement procedures to prevent employee abuse when it comes to purchasing.

The policy eliminates paperwork, time and holds employees more accountable, as well as allowing the school division to monitor accounts daily online.

The move comes in the wake of news reports that Chesapeake city employees loosely guarded taxpayers' dollars for items including chicken breasts and DVD changers.

Like many private companies, the school system authorizes employees to purchase small dollar items at stores like Sam's Club, Wal-Mart and Office Max. At small companies, it's relatively easy to monitor such purchases, but when an organization has literally hundreds of such transactions, effective monitoring is a much greater challenge.

Those determined to profit at taxpayer expense will no doubt be able to find holes in the system. Nonetheless, it's a good, common sense move that if it is not already, should be implemented throughout the entire local government apparatus.

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