January 4, 2010
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News: Another Gov't Agency Addresses CC Abuse
While Mississippi deals with the winter blast and unusual snowy weather, the temperature was near boiling at the Lauderdale County Board meeting. Like so many other government agencies, the county is dealing with employee's misuse of county credit cards. A motion was raised by District 5's Supervisor, Ray Boswell, to remove all county credit cards from employees to prevent any further abuse. According to Mr. Boswell, District 4's Supervisor, Joe Norwood, is the only remaining county employee to continue carrying a county card. According to Boswell, Norwood has used the credit card for several questionable transactions and believes it is not right.
Records show that Norwood used the credit card for a purchase of $69.49 at the Deville Camera & Video, $110 at the Horseshoe Casino & Hotel, !122.17 at the Silver Star Hotel, and most recently $26.86 at a gas station in Shorter, Alabama. A memo from the County Administrator stated that he brought the gas purchase to Norwood's attention saying that there was no approved travel to the Alabama area. Norwood was asked to reimburse the county for the $26.86 to cover the gas non-business related gas purchase. Another board member acknowledged that the use of county credit cards is convenient for airfare and hotel accommodations; however, travel vouchers would be a workable solution to the problem.
Norwood argued his case saying his use of the county's credit card is public knowledge and he has nothing to hide. Furthermore, Norwood insinuated that other members of the county board do not use cards because they find it easier to hid expenses that are inappropriate by using per diem reimbursements. He also stated that the use of a $2,500 credit limit card was nothing when managing a $50 million operation. Before the day of the board meeting, all other county supervisors had rendered their cards. Norwood was the only one left to possess and continue using the county card. In the end, the board voted 3 to 1 to eliminate the policy of issuing county cards to supervisors.