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****PRELIMINARY AND TENTATIVE FINDINGS**** Recommendation: To ensure that qualified financial and professional services are acquired at the lowest possible cost consistent with the size, nature, and complexity of the bond issue, the FMPA should select financial advisors and bond counsel using a competitive selection process whereby RFPs or RFQs are solicited from a reasonable number of professionals. Finding No. 11: Credit Cards During the period October 2012 through June 2014, the FMPA had 51 active credit cards, including 42 issued to its own employees and 9 issued to employees of member municipalities. The 9 credit cards issued to employees of member municipalities were issued to allow individuals with responsibility for power plant maintenance to purchase small tools and supplies and to travel for FMPA business purposes, such as preventive maintenance at the Stock Island plant. FMPA policies require credit card users to sign user agreements indicating their understanding of the credit card policy and responsibilities regarding credit cards before the user is issued a card. For the period October 2012 through June 2014, we reviewed 21 user agreements and tested 29 credit card expenditures totaling $52,331, and noted the following: Y Of 21 credit card agreements selected for review, FMPA records did not evidence signed agreements for 3 (14 percent) credit cards issued. Upon our inquiry, FMPA personnel indicated that user agreements were signed prior to credit card issuance but had been misplaced. Subsequently, in September 2014, all three users signed new user agreements. Failure to obtain signed user agreements prior to issuing credit cards increases the risk that inappropriate purchases could occur. Good business practice requires that credit card users attest to their respective purchases by signed monthly credit card activity reports. Of the 29 credit card purchases tested, we noted 5 instances related to 3 employees, in which the employees did not sign the monthly activity reports. While the reports were signed by the employees' supervisors in accordance with FMPA policy, when employees do not review and attest to their purchases, there is an increased risk that errors or unauthorized purchases could occur without timely detection. The FMPA Poli )' and Employee Manual requires employees to return their credit cards upon termination but is silent as to where they are to be returned. The FMPA's informal procedure is that either the terminated employee's supervisor or the Human Resources Department is to notify the credit card administrator, the Chief Financial Officer, so that the card may be canceled electronically. No FMPA employees with credit cards terminated employment during the period October 2012 through June 2014; however, one employee of a member municipality terminated in April 2014, but the employee's credit card had not been canceled at the time of our review in September 2014. Subsequent to our inquiry, the FMPA canceled the card in October 2014. FMPA personnel informed us that the card was not timely canceled because the member municipality had not notified the FMPA credit card administrator of the employee's termination. Untimely cancelation of credit cards of terminated individuals increases the risk of unauthorized credit card activity. The FMPA established a monthly credit limit for each individual assigned a credit card, and the credit limits ranged from $2,500 to $15,000. However, the FMPA had not established procedures to periodically monitor the reasonableness of credit card limits, such as comparing credit card limits to actual credit card activity. Effectively monitoring the reasonableness of credit card limits would reduce the FMPA's dollar exposure in the event that the credit cards are used for unauthorized purchases. 21 23