HOUSTON (KTRK) -- HISD employees abused or misused district-issued credit cards with hundreds of transactions flaunting procurement card rules, according to an internal audit made public Monday.
A key problem: While card purchases are limited to $1,000 per transaction, 68 percent of purchases reviewed appear to have circumnavigated that rule by breaking up the transactions into separate purchases.
"It's a very high percentage," HISD chief auditor Richard Patton said at the school board's audit committee meeting.
For example, one card user racked up a $4,000 bill on a restaurant trip, asking the restaurant to break the bill into four, separate $1,000 tabs to get around the $1,000-per-purchase rule.
"That person is just dishonest," Audit Committee Chairwoman Jolanda Jones said.
Other findings include:
HISD has policies in place that address misuse and appropriation of district-issued cards -- called "Procards" -- via a 96-page user's manual, relying on a stated policy for failure to comply with guidelines. Employees can get their cards taken away if misuse is found, and the district may punish employees further if the abuses are egregious, officials said.
The audit team examined transactions between January 15 and May 15, 2015. As part of the review, 110 transactions were examined.
HISD administrators promised fixes to the problems uncovered by their audit team.
Editor's note: This report has been corrected and was re-published 1:22 pm Aug. 18.