---
title: Audit: Poor administration, compliance plague university P-Card program
description: <p>(The Center Square) – Procurement card programs at a historically Black college in North Carolina reviewed by the state auditor were inconsistent in administration, including noncompliance with procurement usage.</p>
   
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date: 2026-10-24T01:00:02Z
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(The Center Square) – Procurement card programs at a historically Black college in North Carolina reviewed by the state auditor were inconsistent in administration, including noncompliance with procurement usage.

Transaction limits were dodged at North Carolina Central University in Durham by splitting transactions, and spending limits were not supported by management approval in documents, says the analysis from the office of first-term Republican state Auditor Dave Boliek.

In a statement provided to The Center Square, Boliek said, “Oversight and accountability of government credit cards at our public universities, including NCCU, is essential to making sure public dollars are properly spent. Weak controls create opportunities for unauthorized spending and put university resources at unnecessary risk, which can hurt students and taxpayers. NCCU accepted our findings and recommendations, and some efforts to improve operations are already underway.”

In the audit presentation, he wrote in part, “By not consistently managing procurement card and travel card programs, inappropriate, unauthorized, or prohibited purchases may occur and go undetected, increasing the risk of fraud, waste, abuse, and misuse of school resources.”

Auditors reviewed 477 P-Card transactions for $371,645 during an audit period from July 1, 2025, to Feb. 28 where 6,027 transactions totaling $2.8 million were processed. Auditors found 87 in untimely review; 58 prohibited purchases; 52 automatic approvals; 48 missing business purpose; 38 nontravel-related purchases; 27 cases of no training prior to purchase; 16 split transactions, eight missing supportive receipts; and two missing increased limit support.

N.C. Central’s 76 P-Cards had 2,163 transactions totaling $892,394 during the audit period, and the 64 T-Cards had 3,864 transactions totaling $1,897,949. For P-Cards, top categories of spending were in book stores ($98,026), membership organizations ($53,655) and business services ($47,994), with Amazon ($98,707) and Lowe’s Home Improvement ($28,362) the top two merchants. For T-Cards, top categories of spending were in hotels and lodging ($841,122), flights ($327,800) and caterers ($145,348), with Marriott ($313,683) and Ezcater ($135,677) the top two merchants.

Oversight, monitoring and training top the list of recommendations from the auditor’s office. Also recommended are review and update of the P-Card configurations; review of configurations in workflow settings; enforcement of usage requirements; establishment of procedures to identify, investigate and address noncompliance; and review spending limits and verify their agreement with documented approvals.

Dixon’s response, within the audit, said in part, “The university agrees with the recommendations and remains committed to safeguarding public resources and strengthening the oversight, monitoring, documentation, training and system controls supporting its procurement card and travel card programs.”

N.C. Central in 2026-27 reached 10,124 students, inclusive of nearly 2,000 graduate students. The state budget passed this summer for fiscal year 2027 appropriates $110.3 million to the university; tuition and fees, and outside research grants supply the rest of operational costs.

Chancellor Dr. Karrie Dixon and the university this month released a report showing $735.5 million in annual economic impact by the university across the state.

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[https://www.thecentersquare.com/north\_carolina/article\_24abb931-29b6-4f0e-ae56-226c1b047933.html?a](https://www.thecentersquare.com/north_carolina/article_24abb931-29b6-4f0e-ae56-226c1b047933.html?a)