Deputy Treasurer and the Abuse of a State Credit Card
By request of commenter Nuttingham, this topic now has its own thread. The NJ reported on Sunday about the Deputy Treasurer’s misuse of her state-issued credit card. They document about $2100 in personal charges on the card, that were — eventually — reimbursed. The key part of this article (for me, at any rate) was the fact that the Finance Department flagged this pattern of misuse and couldn’t get the attention of anyone in the Treasurer’s Office. Yesterday, the Deputy Treasurer resigned and his morning, the NJ expands the report on her resignation:
In forfeiting her post, Benner also asked to reclaim her status as a state merit-system employee, which could make her eligible for placement in another state job in a different public agency, said Office of Management and Budget Director Ann Visalli.
Benner took a leave of absence from the merit system in 2011 to join Flowers’s office as a political appointee. Prior to that she worked in the Office of the Controller General, the General Assembly’s nonpartisan budget staff.
Merit rules say employees seeking a reinstatement after a leave of absence are entitled to a position for which they are qualified and which pays at least as much as the position they previously held.
So she is resigning as Deputy Treasurer, but wants to come back to work for the State in a merit position. Ann Visalli at OMB notes that they’ll look carefully at that:
“[W]hile Ms. Benner may have indicated to the Treasurer that she wishes to return to the Merit System in an agency other than the State Treasurer’s Office, her conduct first needs to be addressed by her current employing agency,” Visalli said. “It would be important to us for that to be done and for all those facts to be made clear about how these charges happened before making any determination about whether Ms. Benner can return to the merit system.”
Visalli also noted that misuse of a state credit card is grounds for dismissal under merit rules, which also require that any inappropriately spent money be repaid with interest. State policy prohibits officials from using government credit cards for any personal purchases.
The money is paid back, but while the Finance Department seemed to know about a potential issue with this woman’s card, they couldn’t get the attention of the Treasurer’s Office to get them involved in a solution. And it is really odd to me that the Finance Department caught this — where is her supervisor who should be watching over this spending? Returning to State employment raises a bunch of red flags for me, unless there is a much better explanation of why this happened.
What do you think?
Tags: State Treasurer
I actually thought the most interesting part is that the Treasurer’s office got mad at OMB that they didn’t immediately give the Deputy a new state job.
Or was quoted in the paper tsk’ing OMB for talking to the paper.
Flowers too frightened to speak to reporter. He only issues statements.
Rumors are rampant that TNJ is investigating who attended the Patriots game with the Deputy. Hearing perhaps the Treasurer joined her at this event.
Anyone else hearing that?
Just curious, does it matter whether he attended or not? IMHO, this all a bad look for him.
Also funny that Flowers kept telling WBOC that “his administration” wouldn’t tolerate this.
“Administration”?
“And it is really odd to me that the Finance Department caught this…”
Odd that the Governor’s people are scrutinizing Flowers’s offfice looking for dirt? I’d be surprised if they weren’t. Lord knows Flowers has found enough dirt on Markelll’s handling of Delaware’s funds.
Just fire the lady and move on. It’s politics. She paid the money back, what more do you want? Maybe put in some more required internal audits of credit card accounts.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this part of the article isn’t The Treasury getting upset that she wasn’t immediately given another job:
“… His office sent the Office of Management and Budget a letter Monday morning that included Benner’s request to return to merit employment.
“We acknowledged and we accepted [her] request earlier this morning and we would certainly expect the Office of Management and Budget to honor the commitments under the merit system for all of our employees,” Flowers said.”
—–
And maybe this line isn’t him saying that he’s upset that his request wasn’t kept hush-hush:
“Instead of the newspaper being the venue to discuss these things, I certainly hope the Office of Management and Budget will work directly with our office regarding any personnel issue from this point …”
Anyway you slice it, this is trouble for Flowers. It isn’t that bad on its own, but with his attempt to accrue new powers to the Office of Treasurer, and the entertaining big money on a Presidential Yacht, it all starts to create a ominous clanging in the engine room.
This is the entire point I made re: the Finance Department:
The money is paid back, but while the Finance Department seemed to know about a potential issue with this woman’s card, they couldn’t get the attention of the Treasurer’s Office to get them involved in a solution.
It isn’t odd that a third party is doing a review of the credit card use (a third party takes a look at cc usage AND approvals at my company too) — it is a problem that they couldn’t get the attention of anyone at Treasury for more than a year. If you’re paranoid about who is watching you, you don’t let stuff like this slide for that long.
@Nuttingham — that read to me like Flowers and Visalli hadn’t talked about Benner’s request yet and was a little disturbed that Visalli took a hard line.
@Cassandra – There’s still more to the story. Evidently Benner tried to push the football ticket expenses through as some sort of permitted expense and a Treasury staff member in the office refused to sign off on the expense as allowable (knowing it was not allowable and wrong), triggering elevation to the Division of Accounting/Dept of Finance. Wouldn’t Flowers have known something was up when one of his own staffers refused to reconcile charges made by his Deputy and sounded the alarm in late 2011? Or is he simply that completely absent from the day-to-day business of his own office?
Doesn’t. Add. Up. At. All.
This all smells so bad.
I’m GLAD that Visalli is taking a hard line. Ripping off the government should be a firing offense from government itself. (Of course, neither Visalli nor Markell took a hard line with illegal double-dipper Tony DeLuca, but I digress.)
This notion that Benner should get a second chance b/c she ‘only’ ripped off the government while serving in a political position is bullshit. She has demonstrated that she is unfit for state employment. No way she should automatically get a ‘do-over’ in a Merit position, ‘addiction treatment’ aside. It’s not as if two weeks in rehab ever does Lindsay Lohan any good.
And, maybe Flowers is just politically tone-deaf, but he sure has a way of making this look like he’s covering up something. Just trying to salvage his political career, I guess.
still… You don’t have to squint very hard at this to see the Governor’s office swinging a hatchet at Flowers. It seems the credit card charges were being reimburse on an ongoing basis.
I’m told by a state-employee friend that state credit card charges typically have to be documented as a legit expense, processed by the agency’s finance people and then approved by a supervisor. Her supervisor appears to be Flowers.
The guy’s a complete joke. Enough said. By ignoring this and then trying to protect her and get her a new job, he’s just handed Bonini et al a fantastic campaign mailer and attack line.
“Chip Flowers wants more control over your money. But he couldn’t even catch his own second-in-command who was ripping off taxpayers … and then fought for her to get another state job.”
Game over. Bye, Chipman. Don’t let the door hit you on the ass.
My prediction: Flowers runs, doesn’t have a primary opponent, defeats someone other than Bonini.
Don’t like it, uh, except for the point that Bonini won’t be treasurer.
I mean, Karen Weldin Stewart is Insurance Commissioner, and she’s done far more harm than Flowers possibly could. BTW, if Bonini runs, he loses by far more than he did last time. And he gives up his Senate seat. A win-win.
Like I said earlier, it’s all bad. As the number one in command, he should have been aware of what his number two was doing. I don’t see why he wouldn’t want to be, seeing as though he is the elected official and she is appointed. If it were me, I wouldn’t want my the blood, sweat and tears that I spent trying to get the position to go up in smoke because of the poor judgment and otherwise foolishness of any person, let alone someone I hand-picked! Her story doesn’t make sense, and his doesn’t either. Perhaps had she said her addiction made her buy different things I could somewhat understand. But Patriots tickets? A car service? A night at the Red Roof Inn? Really??
For his sake, I hope there isn’t more to the story professionally or personally. This could get even uglier.
This is silly season. She made some stupid purchases, some of which she felt were office expenses, and she spent time challenging some of them. A typical/mundane back and forth that happens within most offices public or private. Especially with regards to travel, gas milage, and meals. You make a purchase that you feel pertains to the office, the office denies it. You try to make your case again. They deny you again and eventually you pay it back. The Dept of Finance confirmed this by stating that there was no real fraud at play because there was a history of her paying these expenses back without being asked, it just took longer than they would like. Still wrong, but not a massive conspiracy or anything that should lay at the feet of the Treasurer or even hamper her future. This was not some malicious violation of the public’s trust. This was someone who took too long to pay the state’s credit card bill back. If anything, the Dept of Finance is at fault because if they thought this was a problem over a year ago, why did they not put a hold on her card at that time. Instead they just “attempted to contact the office for a year”??? The fact that the News Journal is trying their best to spin this just shows how deeply rooted in the Markell camp they really are. If you don’t see that, then you’re suffering from the same problem. Nothing to see here other than the fact that the Governor’s administration is using their power to attack an outspoken critic. Imho
I take El’s comment as a challenge to the field.
This is how you know that this is the new spin:
A typical/mundane back and forth that happens within most offices public or private.
Because how mundane is it to have to explain that you had a number of charges on a State-issued card that your ex-husband somehow got ahold of to charge stuff in your name?
🙄
@Cassandra: Well, you know how men are. They can’t be trusted to take care of the household finances.
My wife agrees with that meme. Anybody got a couple thou they could ‘lend’ me?
True! Which is why the first rule of credit cards is to not let your spouse touch the employer’s card. Because all they’ll do is rack up dodgy charges at the Red Roof Inn.
Rubio did the same thing while in state government in florida charging triple or more of her bills and nothing happened to him except he became a US Senator Oh well he is a Repuk after all.
Awesome that “Cobain’s” response to this is “Nevermind.”
I would challenge El Somnambulo’s assertion that Benner “ripped off the government while serving in a political position” is… well, let me use his words again “bullshit”. The State did not end up paying any of those expenses.
What she did is stupid, and the explanations are erratic. She should suffer a consequence and maybe Flowers should as well. But let’s not make this out to be a heist.
Sorry. Meant ‘would have ripped off the state for unauthorized expenses had she not been caught’. That better?
From the State’s budget and accounting policy Chapter 12, Super Card(*), it would seem clear that football tickets are not state business. These kinds of purchases cannot possibly be disputed. That this was a continuing pattern over a period of time (she always paid it back), demonstrates either ignorance, blatant disregard for policies, rules, and regulations, or willful malfeasance, any or all of which should invoke paragraph c(**) of the policy. Public officials, whether elected, appointed, or hired must be held to a higher standard because they (in theory) are responsible for the public trust in government as well as a fiduciary responsibility. The state has the authority to adjudicate this breach of the public trust, but a “merit” position is an inappropriate resolution, unless there is no meaning to the word. Additionally, for this to take place within the Department of the Treasury is particularly egregious and galling.
*b. The SuperCard may be used only by authorized state employees and must not be used for personal or unauthorized purposes, including:
2. To purchase alcoholic beverages or any substance, material, or service in violation of policy, law, or regulation per the Delaware Code or Accounting Procedures.
3. Meals, travel, entertainment within the State of Delaware, or any expense not authorized for State business.
(**)c. A cardholder who intentionally makes unauthorized purchases or accidentally (carelessly) uses the SuperCard is liable for the total dollar amount of such unauthorized purchases, plus any administrative fees charged by JPMC Bank in connection with the misuse. The cardholder is also subject to disciplinary action (including dismissal) and possible criminal action for intentionally making unauthorized purchases.
My friend showed me her state card. The idea that it could be confused with a personal card by accident more than once is utter bullshit. The card says “State of Delaware SuperCard” in the corner, has the state seal in another corner, a yellow strip all the way across the face with the words “COMMERCIAL CARD” and a photo of Leg Hall as the background. Pretty damn distinctive.
State workers are pretty pissed. This lying imbecile has just painted everyone with a card as a potential thief.