Shropshire fire service worker made personal purchases using work credit card

An internal investigation had been carried out and the culprit had been “dealt with appropriately”, Deputy Chief Fire Office Dave Myers told the governing body.y

In a report for the Shropshire and Wrekin Fire and Rescue Authority, Shropshire Council head of audit Ceri Pilawski said they had been commissioned to look at credit card use, and had made recommendations to improve control of online purchases.

Neither Ms Pilawski nor Officer Myers told the standards, audit and performance committee how much money was involved, but the deputy CFO told members the matter had been resolved internally.

They were speaking during a discussion of Ms Pilawski’s 2019-20 Internal Audit Annual Report, which expressed confidence in the fire authority’s “framework for governance, risk management and internal control processes”.

Two out of nine areas were rated “good”, “reasonable” assurance was given in three and four had “limited” assurance. No “unsatisfactory” ratings were given, and Ms Pilawski pointed out that two of the “limited” ratings covered “newly adopted systems that continue to be embedded”.

Recommendations

Committee member Karen Blundell highlighted a paragraph in the report that said: “Following commissioning of an investigation that reviewed concerns around personal purchases made using a credit card, a management report was provided with recommendations to improve the control environment around web-based purchasing environments.

“Follow up demonstrated that out of 17 recommendations, two had been implemented, nine partially [implemented] and six were ongoing.

“Officers have committed to continue to pick this up in 2020-21.”

Councillor Blundell added that a later paragraph referred to the purchases as a “misuse” of the card, and asked whether this was “just misunderstanding rather than misappropriation?”

She added: “Having read the report, I’m not too sure what it’s actually suggesting.

Officer Myers said: “There was misuse of a credit card by a member of staff. There was an investigation and subsequent performance management actions were taken. So that was addressed internally and, as a result, also, we implemented the recommendations of the processes to ensure the systemic issues wouldn’t re-occur.

Councillor Blundell asked: “Can I assume that the member of staff has been dealt with appropriately?

Officer Myers said yes.

Ms Pilawski said detailed reports of incidents like these, when they are uncovered by auditors, are usually given to officers, and the fire authority – which sits in public – receives anonymised reports of investigations and their outcomes.