Procurement cards are there to make low value procurement more efficient, 

however, if adequate compliance programmes 

aren’t in place, significant fraud can occur.

How do you look at your spend?

Do you look at these areas

1. attractive items e.g., laptops (stolen for personal use)
2. high value items
3. volume items (type of goods may indicate a company/sector they are being diverted to)
4. verification that the goods, works or services were provided

Let us give you a case example

A Senior Director of Maintenance agreed with vendors, to exploit the P-Card system 

for their mutual benefit. Over a 6-year period regular cash payments 

of approximately $1,000 to $2,000 per month was made and 

in exchange for those payments, the vendors falsely billed 

for items that the vendor was not provided,

The illicit misuse of purchasing cards may be 

• for personal use or 
• as part of a fraud scheme. 

There are many data points that can be considered.

Start simple comparing payment data against other records:

1. compare the purchasing and delivery address for diversion of goods. 
2. compare goods receipt notes against your asset register. 
3. compare your original purchase records against goods receipt notes. 

Look at your data for patterns:

1. splitting purchases to evade limits 
2. analysis of total values from specific suppliers (highest spend)
3. analyse your purchasing data including invoices/receipts for missing data 

is this an attempt to hide the fraud/theft?

As we always say, prevention is the best approach.

So start today!

Introduce basic counter fraud measures

Do you have

1. An authorisation process
2. Monthly spend analysis and accurate record keeping
3. Annual audit

If done correctly, 

any non-compliance with these measures drives further investigation.

Simply put, use prevention to drive your detection approach.

and vice versa.

How are you using your data?