GPC Micro Purchases

[RJeffers]

First time post and would greatly appreciate any feedback/insight. Could be as simple as a yes and no, or feel free to elaborate.

I started at a new organization this summer and I am confused with the current organizations process compared to my last organization. 

Does your organizations GPC/policy team review every single micro purchase made by cardholders? They had me fill in for a teammate that went on leave and my task was to watch an email org box and assign these requests to reviewers on our team and put these request into an excel file. (There are packages submitted for pens/pencils, staples, stamps etc...many purchases under $100.00). They are pretty pessimistic about the card holders that's why they want to review everything, but to me it seems to defeat the purpose of the program. They take the training required and are authorized to make these purchases.

From my experience its the same anywhere, its inevitable that there will be negligent card holders but that shouldn't mean holding up the entire program.  

My previous organization did not do this as there are hundreds of card holders and thousands of transactions made each year making reviewing every purchase unrealistic. There were audits and random reviews of the files to ensure compliance, IOD for split purchases etc...

I am trying help the program and save a handful of contracting bodies that do this all day. Anything I could provide to show that there is a better way to do this? 

 

 

 

 

 

[jtolli]

What level are you at?  From your post, and the fact that you say, "there are hundreds of card holders and thousands of transactions made each year", I assume you are in the Contracting Office at the Agency/Organization Program Coordinator (A/OPC) level.  My experience with the Government Purchase Card (GPC) has largely been with DoD (Army).  The Billing Official, or Authorizing Official (the title in some DoD agencies) has to review and approve each transaction for Cardholders under their Managing Account.  There is no requirement for the A/OPC to review each transaction, although some A/OPCs require their review and approval for certain transactions (e.g supplies above $5,000, services above $2,500, all commercial training purchases, etc.).  Although their is no broad regulatory/policy requirement for the A/OPC to review/approve all micropurchases, your organization could certainly put such a policy in place.  Like you, I agree this is not practical/feasible in most cases, and doesn't make sense.  As you say, the standard policy (DoD) is for the A/OPC to use Insights on Demand (IOD) to review transactions that are "flagged" for review, and they can choose to randomly select other transactions for review as well.  As I recall, it's been a while since I have been involved with the GPC program, the periodic audit requirement was done away with by DoD, and IOD is now the preferred tool to conduct "audits" of the GPC program.

[RJeffers]

2 hours ago, jtolli said:

What level are you at?  From your post, and the fact that you say, "there are hundreds of card holders and thousands of transactions made each year", I assume you are in the Contracting Office at the Agency/Organization Program Coordinator (A/OPC) level.  My experience with the Government Purchase Card (GPC) has largely been with DoD (Army).  The Billing Official, or Authorizing Official (the title in some DoD agencies) has to review and approve each transaction for Cardholders under their Managing Account.  There is no requirement for the A/OPC to review each transaction, although some A/OPCs require their review and approval for certain transactions (e.g supplies above $5,000, services above $2,500, all commercial training purchases, etc.).  Although their is no broad regulatory/policy requirement for the A/OPC to review/approve all micropurchases, your organization could certainly put such a policy in place.  Like you, I agree this is not practical/feasible in most cases, and doesn't make sense.  As you say, the standard policy (DoD) is for the A/OPC to use Insights on Demand (IOD) to review transactions that are "flagged" for review, and they can choose to randomly select other transactions for review as well.  As I recall, it's been a while since I have been involved with the GPC program, the periodic audit requirement was done away with by DoD, and IOD is now the preferred tool to conduct "audits" of the GPC program.

Yes, sorry I am in the contracting office and that's also how it was at my previous organization. There still were checks and balances of course but at this new organization they are having the contracting office (GPC/Policy team) review all purchases for the base (about 4-5 individuals doing this). It would take me all day to log these request and send to the reviewers/approvers. Luckily it was just a week and now I am back to contractual work, I'm just trying to help us be more efficient and allocate bodies for other work we are turning away. I think they do want to have this oversight unfortunately. I just don't see how its any different from giving a contracting officer a warrant still reviewing everything he/she does. After more digging in the FAR/DFAR for micropurhcases it seems like it would be very hard not to comply. There is a ton of flexibility for these low dollar purchases. 

 

Thank you for your insight/help.