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10/08/2012 12:00 AMOLD SAYBROOK - To store owners and town vendors, the new town MasterCard allows town employees the authorization to buy needed items on the spot. To the town employee granted use of the new town charge card, it cuts out time-consuming steps needed to request a paper check just to buy a package of screws from the hardware store. To town managers, the new card reduces town paperwork while retaining real-time oversight of town spending by employees.
It's a win-win, explained First Selectman Carl Fortuna to the selectmen on Sept. 25.
How is oversight maintained? Town managers can set spending limits by spending category and by vendor for each charge card issued. Each item charged is linked to the appropriate department budget through the name of the employee using the card, and spending can be monitored by supervisors and the first selectman on a 24/7 basis through an online portal of the card's issuer, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank.
Fortuna said recently that he expects that no more than 10 town employees will be authorized to receive a town MasterCard.
"It's a charge card-not a credit card-and you can put whatever restrictions on it you want. You can restrict vendors. You can place spending limits. It's just a way of streamlining purchasing by the town," said Fortuna. "It will build efficiencies and cut down on paper. When we institute a new town purchase order system, maybe by next July, the charge cards will be tied into this."
Fortuna said the new charge card program to streamline purchasing will be a joint program of both town government and the Board of Education and piggy-backs on the same program offered by the State of Connecticut for its employees.
"There are no fees assessed to the town to use the cards-it's a card that's tied into state contracts," said Fortuna. "We'll be the 20th town in the state to do it."
Depending on the amount of spending charged to the cards, the town is also eligible to receive cash rebates from the card's issuer.
At the selectmen's meeting, Fortuna recounted one story to help explain why town charge cards are needed. During Tropical Storm Irene, Police Chief Michael Spera had to charge nearly $5,000 on his personal credit card to buy large quantities of ice quickly to help residents who had no electricity. He did this because the town's paper-based check request process to buy the ice might have meant several days and an unacceptable delay.
Filling out a paper check request, getting it signed, having the town accounting department enter in into the computerized accounting system to schedule a check. Printing out checks on specific days and then getting them signed. Each step takes time when the system is a paper-based system. Had the police chief had access to a town charge card tied to his department's budget, he could have bought the ice immediately and, when the bill arrived at Town Hall, the spending would have been automatically linked to the right town budget account.
The municipal MasterCard purchasing card program to which the town has now signed on is administered by the Connecticut Department of Administrative Services and the Office of the State Comptroller.
The new charge cards should be available this month for use by the authorized town employees.