The Australian National Audit Office has released the results from an independent performance audit across several entities titled ‘Controls over Credit Card Use’. The risks identified should not be surprising to fleet managers but this audit is a good reminder that fuel cards should be treated like credit cards or cash.
This audit looked at credit cards, Cabcharge e-tickets and fleet fuel cards. One of the conclusions was that the policies on Australian Government fleet fuel cards were not adequate in several departments.
The Whole of Australian Government (WoAG) contract with SG Fleet that commenced in December 2012 includes the provision of managing fuel purchases for each Australian Government fleet vehicle. As part of this contract SG Fleet ‘must maximise the number of outlets from which fuel can be purchased’. To accomplish this most vehicles are issued with three fuel cards.
The audit report identified that the fuel cards issued by SG Fleet had several built-in controls to reduce the ability of fraud to occur. The timely loading of transactions and the provision of reporting via SG Fleet’s FleetIntelligence database provided the government entities with visibility over fuel purchases and security measures such as PINs and purchase controls were available.
It did not find substantial or entrenched practices of fraud but noted several examples where policies were poor that resulted in a fraud occurring. These included fuel cards being left in vehicles when they were sold, cars being incorrectly allocated and invalid odometer readings.
